Shestokas 4 Illinois

To my fellow Democrats and Americans, this is why I want JB Pritzker gone. He hit us with 63 tax and fee hikes since 2019. That’s about $86 billion extra taken from families and businesses. Doubled the gas tax from 19 cents to 38 cents and locked it to inflation forever so it just keeps going up. Seven of his eight budgets broke spending records, top one hit $55.9 billion. Illinois got the highest tax burden in America now, 53% higher than the national average. Highest combined state and local taxes and highest cell phone taxes too. Truth in Accounting gave us an F on finances, worst unfunded pensions in the country. A Chicago taxpayer is sitting on about $79,500 in combined state and city debt. He signed a pension sweetener for Chicago cops and firefighters that adds like $11 billion more by 2055. Chicago’s pensions got over $50 billion in promises and only $14 billion in assets. We still got the lowest credit rating of any state. He barely vetoes anything, under 1%, just 29 vetoes on almost 3,500 bills. Signed every single bill in the 2026 session, 395 of them. Promised to veto those partisan gerrymandered maps then signed them anyway. While he’s been in office 11 former state lawmakers pleaded guilty or got convicted, including Madigan on racketeering. No real ethics reform. About 275,000 people left Illinois in his first term and took $35 billion in income with them. We’re on pace to lose a congressional seat after 2030. Private sector job growth basically nothing at 0.1%. Ranked 43rd in the country. During COVID he dropped 119 executive orders. Extended the emergency 42 times and ruled by decree for 1,155 days, longer than 49 other states. Schools ranked 43rd for actual in-person learning. Auditor General found $5.24 billion in improper unemployment payments, $2.8 billion of that just gone to identity theft and never coming back. Chicago Tribune linked him to Bahamas trusts that may have ducked millions in taxes while he was raising taxes on the rest of us. Cook County Inspector General said his family pulled toilets out of their Gold Coast mansion to get a $331,000 property tax break. His name came up on Blagojevich’s wiretaps too. He’ll say 8 balanced budgets, 12 credit upgrades, bills backlog cleared, $2 billion rainy day fund. Those “balanced” budgets needed $86 billion in new taxes. The backlog got cleared with federal COVID money. That rainy day fund is nothing next to $90 billion in debt and the worst pension mess in America. Elections coming. Read the receipts then go vote. We trying to fire JB Pritzker, man. This guy gotta go. That’s all we asking.