This is not a speech. It is the envelope on the counter. The kid who did not come back. The house you bought for a family, and a tax bill that does not feel like home anymore.
If you do not usually vote, this is for you. A lot of people stay home because the booth feels like a test. You freeze. You do not know which name to mark. That is not apathy. That is a ballot that is too long. We made a card for that. Four on one page. Keep one. Give three to three people who also stay home. These are the ones we endorse. Staying home will not make Illinois feel like it used to. Showing up might. Print the card.
The tax bill
Hard to buy a place. Harder to keep it. A family cannot raise taxes on itself to make the numbers work. Neither should Springfield. Fix what is broken. Do not make it larger.
The light bill
The electric bill feels like a second rent. Water too. Bills should be predictable. People in Logan County should not dread the envelope.
Kids and jobs
Friends left. Kids left. The paychecks went with them, and the tax bill stayed. People should not have to vote with their feet. Make it possible to stay and work here.
Look at the states next door.
Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky. Same Midwest. Different books. If Illinois felt like those places, fewer kids would leave and the envelope on the counter would not sting the same way. These figures are from Tax Foundation, the Census, Illinois’ own pension reports, Equable, EIA, and the rating agencies. We did not make them up.
Tax Foundation, 2024 ACS, taxes as a share of owner-occupied home value. Illinois is tied with New Jersey for highest in the country. Logan County is about 1.77 percent, still more than double Indiana. Source
Tax Foundation incidence study, calendar year 2022 (latest in Facts and Figures 2026). Highest burden among these six states. About $8,390 per person in Illinois vs about $5,030 in Indiana. Source
Equable Institute, 2025, state plus large local systems, so states can be compared. Illinois is last of 51. Illinois’ own five state systems (CGFA, June 30, 2025) are about 47 percent funded with about $145 billion unfunded. Wisconsin is overfunded. Equable
Tax Foundation, all-in state gasoline tax, July 2026. Illinois is 2nd highest in the country. This is the tax, not the pump price. Source
U.S. Energy Information Administration, Form EIA-861M, Table 5.6.A, June 2026. U.S. average 18.34 cents. Logan County is Ameren country, not ComEd. EIA
People leaving
From July 2024 to June 2025, Illinois lost about 40,000 people to other states. Indiana gained about 12,000. Missouri gained about 14,000. Kentucky and Wisconsin gained too. Since 2020, Illinois has lost about 456,000 people domestically. Newcomers from abroad are why the total population ticked up. Strip that out, and neighbors are still gaining us.
Census Bureau state population estimates, Vintage 2025. ACS 2024: many who leave Illinois go to Indiana, Wisconsin, and Florida.
The credit on the door
Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri carry AAA or Aaa ratings. Wisconsin is Aa1 / AA+. Illinois is still the lowest-rated state (Moody’s A1, S&P A, Fitch A- as of September 2026). Upgrades are not the same as being in the clear. The agencies still flag the pension hole.
State income tax as of January 1, 2026: Illinois 4.95% flat. Indiana 2.95% flat. Iowa 3.80% flat. Kentucky 3.50% flat. Neighbors have been cutting. Illinois has not, since 2017.
Where this comes from
- Tax Foundation, property taxes by state, 2024 ACS
- Tax Foundation, state and local tax burdens, 2022
- Tax Foundation, individual income tax rates, 2026
- Tax Foundation, 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index (Illinois 38th; Indiana 10th)
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 state population estimates
- EIA Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A
- Equable Institute, public pension funded ratios, 2025
- Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, five state retirement systems, June 30, 2025
Logan County is not Chicago. I-55 is not a toll road. The light company is Ameren. The property tax here is still high by Midwest standards. The state numbers are the ones Springfield controls. That is why this election is not only a county race.
Laws that cost more, not less
Over the last eight years, two terms, Springfield has signed a pattern: new taxes, new fees, a bigger budget. A six-month pause is not a cut. The grocery tax did not vanish. It can land on your city without a vote. This is a trend we cannot continue.
The first budget of this stretch was about $40 billion. The one signed in 2026 is about $56 billion, the largest in state history. That is not living within our means.
- 2019
Gas tax doubled, then set to rise every year. 19 cents a gallon to 38 cents, then tied to inflation every July. License plates up about $50. Rebuild Illinois (Public Act 101-32). You pay more at the pump in Logan County this year than last year unless they delay it. In 2026 they delayed the inflator six months, until after the election. They did not repeal it.
- 2019
Cigarettes, e-cigs, parking, titles. Same capital package. Cigarette tax up $1 a pack. A new tax on e-cigarettes. Higher title fees. A tax on garage parking. None of that comes off the ticket at the store. It stacks.
- 2019
Minimum wage to $15. Public Act 101-1, signed in the first month. Neighbors still sit on $7.25 federal. The raise is real for the worker. The cost is real for the diner, the farm, and the shop, and it shows up in prices. Indiana did not do this.
- 2021
Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Nuclear subsidies and clean-energy adders go on the electric bill. Lawmakers said a few dollars a month. AARP said it could run much higher. Logan County is Ameren country. The envelope on the counter is the receipt.
- 2023
Paid Leave for All Workers. Public Act 102-1143. Forty hours of paid leave, any reason, on almost every payroll. Fine for a big firm. A five-person shop in Lincoln pays it too. That cost does not vanish. It lands on the customer or the owner.
- 2024
New taxes to fill the next budget. Sportsbook tax raised. Video gambling tax raised. A cap on what corporations can write off in losses, worth hundreds of millions to Springfield. The state grocery tax was set to go away in 2026, and cities were told they can put it back on without a referendum. That is not a tax cut. That is a shift.
- 2025
Transit bailout, paid from the road fund and new sales tax. About $1.5 billion a year for Chicago-area transit, including motor-fuel sales tax money that used to go to roads, plus a higher RTA sales tax and a 30 percent jump in commercial tolls. Downstate still drives I-55. The money still leaves.
- 2025
Another “largest budget,” more taxes. Fiscal year 2026: about $55 billion, more than $700 million in new taxes. All House and Senate Republicans voted no.
- 2026
Largest budget yet, new taxes on the digital economy. About $56 billion. A 10 percent tax on targeted digital ads, fees on big social platforms, taxes on fantasy sports and digital assets. Working families were told their income tax did not go up. The money still comes from the same economy they live in.
Rebuild Illinois: State Journal-Register and ABC7, June 28, 2019, Public Act 101-32. Minimum wage: NPR Illinois / Public Act 101-1, February 19, 2019. CEJA: Illinois.gov press release, September 15, 2021. Paid leave: State Journal-Register, March 13, 2023, Public Act 102-1143. FY26 budget: WQAD / Capitol News Illinois, 2025. Transit: Chicago Tribune, December 16, 2025. FY27 budget: Capitol News Illinois and CBS Chicago, June 16, 2026. Gas inflator delay: same FY27 budget coverage.
Fair is fair
Not every bill in eight years was a tax. A few things we would have voted for too. Saying so does not erase the gas tax, the electric bill, or a $56 billion budget. It means we tell the truth.
The water
In 2025 Springfield banned carbon dumping under the Mahomet Aquifer, the drinking water for much of central Illinois. Senate Bill 1723. Bipartisan. Unanimous in the Senate. Senator Sally Turner was on it. Water is not political. If you wreck the well, you cannot flip a switch and get it back.
Kids and trafficking
A 2025 law (Public Act 104-159) tightened the human-trafficking statute. Senator Turner was a cosponsor. That is the kind of bill that should not have a party label. Illinois should be clear that people who traffic children get the hardest penalty on the books.
Open the local books
In 2026 a new law requires local governments to put audit and financial reports online. That is sunlight. It is the same principle we want in Springfield: if taxpayers paid for it, they get to see it.
The old unpaid-bill pile
Illinois used to run months behind on paying its bills. That backlog came down. Bond ratings ticked up from the cellar. Give that its due. It is not the same as a pension that is 47 percent funded, or a gas tax that still rises every year. Paying yesterday’s vendors is the floor, not the finish.
Aquifer: WAND, Daily Illini, and Mahomet Daily, August 2025, SB 1723 / Public Act 104-119. Trafficking: ILGA, SB 2323, Public Act 104-159, August 13, 2025. Local audits: Center Square, July 27, 2026. Bill backlog and ratings: Civic Federation and rating-agency coverage cited above.
Senator Turner also got a unanimous celiac and gluten-free food-handler training bill signed in 2025 (SB 1288). Small. Decent. That is how a legislature should work when it is not hunting for the next tax.
We have to reverse the trend.
Illinois does not get fiscally sound by adding more of what got us here. A family cannot raise taxes on itself to paper over a hole. Neither should Springfield. These are the things to turn around.
Pension underfunding. The five state retirement systems still owe about $145 billion more than they have on hand. They are funded at about 48 percent. A healthy plan is far higher.
A 90 percent target instead of keeping the promise. State law still aims to be 90 percent funded by 2045. Actuaries fund 100 percent of what was promised. Illinois is the outlier.
Payments that still fall short. Even the required pension check each year is billions below what the actuaries say is needed to get out of the hole.
The structural deficit. In a normal year, tax revenue does not grow fast enough to cover what Springfield has already committed to spend.
Spending that outruns the tax base. The people and businesses who pay the bills are not growing as fast as the promises made in their name.
Property taxes among the highest in the country. That hits the farm, the house, and Main Street first. Hard to buy. Harder to stay.
A combined tax load among the heaviest in the United States. State plus local. Families feel it in April and on every bill in between.
Local pension costs dumped on the property tax bill. The school and the firehouse get squeezed so yesterday’s promises can be kept.
Bond ratings that still sit near the bottom of the states. Upgrades are not the same thing as being in the clear. Rating agencies still flag the pension hole.
Borrowing and back-loaded payment ramps. Kick the hard check down the road, call it a plan, and let the next decade pay.
New programs stacked on old debts. You do not get sound by adding more while the old bills sit unpaid.
People leaving Illinois. When they go, the paycheck goes, and the tax base goes. The remaining neighbors pick up more of the tab.
Jobs and headquarters choosing other states. That is not a slogan. That is a payroll that used to be here.
Young people concluding they have to leave to build a life. A state that cannot keep its kids is not on a sustainable path.
Energy bills that feel like a second rent. Lights and water should be predictable, not a monthly surprise.
Fees, fines, and rate hikes used as taxes by another name. If it comes out of the same wallet, it is still a tax.
An estate tax that punishes families who built something here and want to leave it to their kids instead of to Springfield.
A business climate that tells a shop, a plant, or a farm to look across the state line. Capital is not loyal to a flag. It goes where it can survive.
Raising taxes on families who cannot raise taxes on themselves. That is how a hole gets larger, not smaller.
The idea that Illinois can spend its way out of a hole it dug with spending. Reverse that, or the trend does not reverse.
Pension figures are from Illinois’ own retirement reports (about $145 billion unfunded and about 48 percent funded as of mid-2025). Rating agencies still list Illinois among the weakest-rated states because of that liability. The official numbers move. The direction has not.
How we begin
You do not fix a hole this size in one session. You put a stake in the ground, and you stop digging. It will not happen overnight. What we cannot do is keep growing the budget without deep reviews.
Stake in the ground
Stop growing the budget until it has been gone through, line by line. No new pile on top of the old pile. A family does not add rooms to a house that is already leaking. Neither should Springfield.
Stop the fraud
If money is leaking, find it and shut it off. Fraud is not a rounding error. It is a neighbor’s tax bill walking out the door.
Stop the waste
Programs that do not work. Contracts nobody reviews. Spending that exists because it existed last year. Cut what does not earn its keep. Eliminate it over time, on purpose.
Open the books
Sunlight is how you find the fraud. Taxpayers paid for it. They get to see it. Hidden books hide waste. Open books let honest people clean it up.
Deep reviews first. Then the budget can grow only where it has been earned. That is how you start getting Illinois fiscally sound. That is why we ask you to vote Republican, from the County Board to the Governor.
We are not asking you to love politicians. We are asking you to vote to reverse the trend. Print the sheet. Keep one card for you. Give the other three to three people who vote. It is always hard to know which name to mark when you get in there. These are the ones we endorse. Vote early, or on November 3.
Print four. Keep one. Give three.
These are the ones we endorse. Take your card in with you. Hand the other three to three people who vote.