Republican state Rep. Tom Morrison (Palatine) wonders if Gov. J.B. Pritzker might be trying to pull some sort of bait-and-switch, based on the details of his proposed capital-improvements plan.
“He might be trying to change the narrative to deflect from all the income and other tax increases he’s been talking about since he got to Springfield,” Morrison told North Cook News of the governor’s claim that his $41.5 billion capital-improvements plan could mean as many as 540,000 new jobs for the cash-strapped state.
Morrison is not the only one to question from where Pritzker could be getting his numbers, given the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' report that just over half that many people are now out of the labor force in Illinois as the state’s overall unemployment rate has dwindled to just over 4.4 percent. Additional data shows that the state’s construction sector, which would desperately be needed to do all the heavy lifting for the project, only employs in the neighborhood of 230,000 workers.
State Rep. Tom Morrison (R- Palatine) on the House floor
| morrison4staterep.com
“The plan is still in flux and we don’t yet know what the final bill might look like, but, yeah, I would say those are things that raise eyebrows,” Morrison said.
To raise the funds needed for his so-called Rebuild Illinois plan, Pritzker has outlined a scenario that includes a combination of increased taxes and fees on everything from gas, vehicle registrations, ride-sharing services and liquor to cable, satellite and streaming services.
Alerts Sign-up