North Egypt News

Conservative Karen Tucker wonders how much more Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker thinks small business owners can take.

“So many of them are already struggling for survival but there’s always something more,” Tucker told the North Egypt News. “It’s like the state has a death wish when it comes to our small businesses and the goal is to run all of them out of Illinois.”

Tucker is convinced the progressive tax plan promoted by the governor since his days as a candidate is another step in that direction.

A new Illinois Policy Institute analysis projects that small businesses across the state soon could be forced to pay as much as a 50.3% marginal income tax rate should the tax appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot in the form of a referendum question garner the support it needs for passage. Ignoring growing warnings from many that the tax stands to handcuff small business owners even more, the governor continues to push his signature proposal as one that will only mean higher tax rates for the state’s most affluent residents.

At around 60% of net job creation, small business owners currently rank as the state’s biggest job creators. But those numbers could soon be on the decline, with researchers finding an increase in the top marginal tax rate could mean a slide in the hiring practices of entrepreneurs and slumping earnings for workers.

“It makes no sense at all, but they seem to think they can keep taking people’s money without any consequences,” Tucker added. “Maybe the bigger corporations can survive all this, but it’s quite different for small business owners. When they’re forced to pay even more taxes, it’s like a final nail in the coffin.”

Tucker frets it’s all taken a heavy toll on the already cash-strapped state.

“Illinois may already never be the same and all this will just make it harder for the recovery to come,” she said. “If the tax become law, you really have to ask yourself why would anyone that doesn’t have to stay around, especially when you hear the governor talking his shutdown talk again. At some point, it just become too much.”