With just days remaining in the legislative session, Republican state Rep. Tom Demmer (Dixon) remains firm on his position that no new taxes are needed.
“Over the last several months, we’ve heard heard from Democrats a message that the only way to avoid draconian cuts to the budget was by passing a litany of tax increases that take more and more from middle-class families and businesses across the state,” Demmer said in a press conference posted to You Tube. “We’re here today again to reiterate the reality and that is that House Republicans have identified methods of being able to support critical spending and critical state services without tax increases and without asking more from families across Illinois.”
The latest gathering marks at least the second time over the last two weeks that Demmer and other Republican House members have convened to publicly reaffirm their positions of no new taxes in the 2020 budget. In a post to his website, Demmer said recent numbers from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Revenue and the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability predicting that the state will have at least $1.2 billion in new revenue for fiscal year 2020 give even more credence to their long-held position.
"The message is clear there are options other than tax increases to be able to support a reasonable and sound budget plan for fiscal year 2020, but it requires engaging both Republican and rank-and-file members in both parties,” Demmer said during the press conference.
Demmer added that he is convinced much of the rhetoric about cuts and sacrifices being needed if there are no new taxes is just a scheme to get the progressive tax system passed that Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been pushing since his days on the campaign trail.
“But the reality we present today shows that such an increase is not necessary,” he added. “We have identified reasonable solutions for new revenues; we’ve gone through the work in appropriations committees and working with groups to identify places where we can find savings and today we're coming back to say that we have identified new revenues.”
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