Inside:
- Threat of $6 billion in new Illinois taxes
- Lyme Disease Awareness Month: Lauryn’s story
- Commissioning second lieutenants, honoring nurses
- More news
Threat of $6 billion in new Illinois taxes
Last week I told you about a report from the state’s fiscal watchdog agency warning of a shortfall in revenue to cover all of the Governor’s proposed spending. A few days ago a coalition of progressive interest groups came together to reveal a plan to create $6 billion in new Illinois taxes to finance even more spending.
The current fiscal year Illinois state budget only reached balance when Democrats rammed through hundreds of millions of dollars in tax increases at 4:30 a.m. on the last night of session. This year Governor Pritzker proposed the largest spending bill in state history (breaking the record he set last year). With warnings about a revenue shortfall, the only way such a big-spending budget can be balanced is with more taxes.
The proposal, which was immediately slammed by House Republicans as “outrageous and unacceptable,” calls for a series of new taxes to bring in an estimated $6 billion in new state revenue. It would include $1.7 billion in increased taxes on capital gains, $1.2 billion in increased revenue from the corporate income tax, $725 million from taxes on digital advertising, $175 million in additional tax revenue from closing unspecified loopholes, and much more.
Illinois must break this cycle of endless increases in taxes and spending.
Lyme Disease Awareness Month: Lauryn’s story
May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month. During my time in the House of Representatives it has been my great honor to work with Jennifer Russell of Mercer County, the founder and Executive Director of the Illinois Lyme Association to enact policies to protect Illinoisans from Lyme disease and to better treat those who have contracted it. She was moved to act in this cause by the experience of her daughter, Lauryn, who fought a four-year battle with Lyme disease.
This has been an incredible learning experience and journey. Hearing Lauryn’s story for the first time was gut-wrenching. As we began this journey more and more people came forward with their story. I – we – needed to do something. Throughout this and another experience with a mother and daughter, I learned “there is nothing like the passion of a Mother with a sick child!”
This Lyme Disease Awareness Month, please click here to read more about Lauryn and about the work we have done over the years to raise awareness of Lyme disease in Illinois.
Commissioning second lieutenants, honoring nurses
On my way home from Springfield last Friday, I attended the Western Illinois University ROTC Commissioning ceremony. Six of the twelve Cadets in the 2025 class were commissioned. The remaining six are scheduled later.
Congratulations and thank you to the newly commissioned Second Lieutenants as they begin their military careers.
Over the weekend I attended the 21st Annual Nurses Week Convocation and Remembrance Service at the Mother Bickerdyke Memorial Statue on the Knox County Courthouse lawn. We were instructed to place a white rose in the vase at the foot of the Mother Bickerdyke Memorial statue in memory of a nurse. After placing the rose we announced who our rose was placed for.
Mine was placed in honor of Ruth Dahlberg Taylor. She was a 1942 graduate of Moline Lutheran nursing school. She served as a nurse in the US Army during WWII and later went on to serve as the school nurse at Cambridge schools. She also served at many Lutheran youth summer camps, as a church nurse and a member of Andover American Legion Post 465.
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