Month: June 2023

Let’s be honest, anyone who has balanced their budget, gone to the grocery store, or filled up their gas tank recently can tell you that inflation remains high.

Yet, Democrat leaders like President Joe Biden and Governor J.B. Pritzker aren’t counting the ways they can save families in Illinois money – instead, they’re talking about spending more!

While Biden travels to Chicago to talk about all the tax dollars his administration is spending, a new fiscal year is rapidly approaching, where many new Pritzker tax hikes and fee increases are set to kick-in. Just take a look at all the new ways Pritzker and Illinois Democrats are going to be taking more money out of YOUR pockets beginning this Fourth of July weekend:

•Returning Grocery Tax.

•Motor Fuel Tax Increase.

•Permits to Cremate Remains? Doubled.

•Cost to Obtain County Recorder Real Estate Information? Doubled.

•Local Sales Tax Increase.

•Minimum Wage Increase = Tax on Small Businesses and Consumers.

As families and small businesses prepare for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, know this: inflation may be high, but Biden and Pritzker’s tax-and-spend policies will make costs at the register even higher.

Please see the following statement from Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy:

“Illinoisans aren’t interested in watching Joe Biden and J.B. Pritzker offer self-congratulatory pats on the back while their families struggle to put food on the table and keep the lights on in their small businesses. It’s time for Democrats to offer relief and real solutions to the issues Illinois families face, not more of the same tax-and-spend agenda that got us where we are today.”

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Thank you for joining us for the third edition of Continuing Corruption, where the wrongdoings of the Illinois Democrat Party aren’t forgotten. Illinois has been a hotbed of crime and corruption. At a time where trust in police is at an all-time low, campaign promises to fix the problem are very attractive, but unfortunately, Elgie Sims is putting his wallet ahead of his constituents.

Since 2022, Sims has been under investigation by the FBI for influence peddling. In 2021, Sims wrote legislation which he said would make Illinois’s criminal justice system better, including amending a law which would make it mandatory for police officers to wear body cameras by 2025.

What wasn’t mentioned when the bill was proposed is the fact that Sims is an attorney representing Axon Enterprise, an Arizona company that makes police body cameras.

The FBI approached Sims in September of 2022, and has since been under federal investigation. It’s not like Sims wasn’t aware of how unethical this is, he was contacted by the Chicago Board of Ethics in April 2020! Even without that warning, anyone with common sense can see what Sims did was wrong.

Can you guess what committee Sims is on? The Illinois Senate Criminal Law Committee. Sims’ own website describes him as “one of Illinois’ leading voices in the effort to reform our state’s criminal justice system”.
This week, J.B. Pritzker claimed there was “less corruption in politics” due to an “increase in prosecutions.”  If that’s the case, why are so many Illinois Democrats, including Sims, allowed to remain in their seats and have influence over legislation?

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CHICAGO – Today, Illinois Republican Party Chairman Don Tracy released the following statement in response to news that Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to federal tax charges in exchange for a plea agreement: 

“It’s a sad day for Americans who are reminded yet again that there are two-tiers of justice. The political motivations that sweep serious cases, like that of Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton, and many Illinois Democrats, under the rug, yet throw the book at former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have irreparably eroded the confidence Americans have in our justice system. The DOJ must do away with its ‘rules for thee, not for me’ mentality; and they can start by addressing the corruption problem that has taken root in the Illinois Democrat Party.”

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Gov. Pritzker’s $50.4 billion dollar budget for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, negotiated behind closed doors without any discussion with Republicans. With the largest budget in Illinois history. It would guarantee further massive tax burdens for residents in a state that is already the highest taxed in the nation. And that’s if they haven’t fled the state after this year, like the 146,000 residents who fled in 2021.

Pritzker’s fifth and final budget proposal was signed into law last Wednesday, and these are some of the highlights:

The budget features $45 million dedicated to addressing a growing migrant crisis in the city, a crisis that Gov. Pritzker seemingly failed to address to President Biden in their discussions while keeping his eye on the White House. It includes an additional $550 million in taxpayer funds to Medicaid for migrants as well, highlighting the cost that Biden’s border crisis has created for every state in the country, not just our border states.

This is a budget the Chicago Teachers’ Union loves, taking taxpayer dollars from working families to subsidize student loans while taking away opportunity from under-resourced children who had an opportunity to grow in schools that their families were able to choose. The budget stripped funding for the Invest in Kids program, pushing thousands of kids benefiting from tax credit scholarships out of the schools they love.

Illinois owes more than it owns. While Pritzker claims the state’s debt has been cleared, the numbers don’t lie. At the end of the 2022 fiscal year, Illinois had $39.1 billion available to pay $249.6 billion worth of bills. 2023 is already shaping up to be a lower than expected year for annual revenue, with state income down compared to the previous year.

In April of this year, the state experienced a 23% drop in revenue, $1.8 billion less, compared to revenue in April 2022, and now the Democratic Party of Illinois has voted in the state’s largest budget to date.

And that doesn’t include the tax increases Pritzker just dropped into the laps of residents.

The 2024 fiscal year budget starts on July 1.

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CHICAGO –  Welcome back for our second installation of Continuing Corruption, a reminder of the aberrant activity that plagues the Illinois Democrat Party. Illinois taxes are hard enough to stomach for the average citizen, but knowing that your hard earned dollar is being used to pay off someone else’s lawsuit is a hard slap in the face – even more so when you find out Sen. Michael Hastings is still a powerful legislator. 

Hastings was first made a defendant in 2019, when his former chief of staff sued on the basis of racial, gender, disability, political discrimination, and harassment. Instead of doing the right thing and paying for his lawyers out-of-pocket, the state paid a private attorney to defend him to the tune of $47,000. That’s right, almost $50K of taxpayer funds went to help a politician defend inappropriate conduct. The lawsuit lasted two years and was settled out of court in 2022.

And you know who paid for that settlement? Illinois taxpayers had to cough up $150,000 to pay for Hastings’s misconduct! That money could’ve been spent on roads, infrastructure, literally anything better than where it ended up.

Yeah, that’s not all he’s done. It gets worse.

Divorce proceedings between Hastings and his ex-wife started in 2021 and were unsealed in late 2022, revealing very disturbing details about the senator’s home life.

Police records obtained by WBEZ showed that his ex-wife told officers that Hastings physically abused her in 2020 by putting her in a headlock and repeatedly threw her against a door. Other court documents and police records show a pattern of physical and verbal abuse towards his ex-wife, including alleged incidents where he abused her in front of their two children. The same two children that Hastings proudly shows off on his campaign website. Classy.

In September 2022, Hastings tried to weaponize the police against his ex-wife during a custody exchange of the children by attempting to have her arrested. Officers declined to arrest his ex-wife as she had not committed any crimes.

An environmental lobbyist publicly cut all ties with Hastings after alleging that the Senator would get into unprofessional outbursts, bully her, and intimidate her throughout their five year working relationship. And frankly, who can blame her?

Sen. Michael Hastings currently sits on three committees: Judiciary, Licensed Activities, and Special Issues. He isn’t some random politician taking up space, he’s a powerful member of the Illinois Democrat Party, and no one is stopping him.

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CHICAGO, IL – When Governor Pritzker signs the 2024 budget for Illinois this morning, he will evict thousands of children from schools they chose with the stroke of a pen. Governor Pritzker’s budget kills funding for the Invest in Kids educational opportunity program, a landmark program supporting thousands of low-income children and families.

IL Republican Chair Don Tracy released the following statement:

“The Governor claims his new budget is inclusive and supportive but fails to mention the thousands of low income families he will force out of schools they chose. This is a budget the Chicago Teachers Union will love. It is unconscionable that the Governor and his allies claim they are fighting for working families as they eliminate all current funding for the Invest in Kids program, which currently funds educational opportunity for thousands of low income children throughout the state.”

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CHICAGO – Welcome to the first installment of Continuing Corruption, a glimpse at the longstanding history of corruption among Illinois Democrats. With the ComEd Four being held accountable for their actions earlier this year, it’s time to look at the many other Illinois Democrats embroiled in legal scandals.

This week we’re focusing on Democrat Sen. Emil Jones III who was indicted for taking a $5,000 bribe from a red-light camera company, SafeSpeed LLC. But that’s not all! Jones is also accused of lying to the FBI about the scheme. Just par for the course for Illinois Democrats.

Of course, he is not the only Democrat being indicted for taking handouts from SafeSpeed in return for protection from the legislative regulations…Former Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta, former Worth Township Supervisor John O’Sullivan, and former Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci are just some of the names tangled up in the scandal.

Jones III, son of former Illinois Senate President Emil Jones Jr., plead not guilty in the case, and remains a sitting State Senator despite calls from the Governor for his resignation.

It’s no wonder why only 44% of U.S. adults trust their elected officials and candidates running for office. As the people of Illinois endure record inflation, rising crime, and smaller paychecks, they deserve accountability, not Democrats gleefully stuffing their pockets and breaking the very laws they’re entrusted to uphold.

Illinois families deserve leadership, not lawlessness. Republicans are ready to pave the way for accountability and restore common-sense legislation in Springfield. With the upcoming 2024 election cycle, we need to drain the Democratic swamp that’s had a chokehold on this state for far too long.

Stay tuned for next week’s edition of our corruption series, where we are exposing the Illinois Democrats who have let us all down.

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