McLean County Times

Scott Preston, Republican candidate for the 91st House District, lambasted Democratic opponent Sharon Chung's support for a graduated tax initiative.

"Chung talked about how she would love to see that tax fight happen moving forward, we can't let that happen in central Illinois or Bloomington-Normal," Preston said. "The ramifications are too big and we have to put people over the politics of the day in our opponent's progressive politics."

Chung was a supporter of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s so-called Fair Tax which would have raised income tax rates.

Scott Preston and Sharon Chung | Facebook

“I actually was very disappointed that the FairTax amendment failed last year,” Chung said in a recent debate. “The misinformation around it was supported by a billionaire who left Illinois as soon as, you know, he just didn't want to play in the sandbox and he took his toys and left the state. The Fair Tax was really one of the ways that we could have really addressed a lot of the problems that sort of the things that we put the extra burden on working and middle-class families on the tax that with the flat tax that we have here, the Fair Tax really could have solved a lot of issues. I was really disappointed when it didn't happen. But again, when you're sort of going up against a billionaire who wants to make more money for himself, and then when, you know, his candidates didn't win this past primary, that he took his toys and left. But, you know, it's something that I voted for and I proudly voted for back last year. I would love to see that try and happen again, maybe with that gentleman not being in the state anymore.” 

Preston has the support of the GOP.

“Clearly, Sharon Chung is running to represent herself and her extreme ideology, while Scott Preston simply wants to make Illinois a safer, and more affordable place to live,” House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) WEEK-TV reported. “Chung promotes a tax hike that the district already rejected overwhelmingly. Electing politicians who tell you when they run that they plan to ignore the will of the voters is a gambit that taxpayers cannot afford to lose in Central Illinois.”

WGLT-TV called Chung’s attempt at damage control “partly false, lacking context, and misleading.” That criticism came from a fact check of a quickly circulated series of mailers against Preston accusing him of “raising taxes” by renewing Normal’s tax levy as a voting member of its council according to WGLT.org

Pritzker spent $58 million of his own fortune in leading Democrats in an aggressive ad campaign seeking to raise taxes on Illinoisans. However, the income tax jump lost at the polls with 53% of voters saying “no” to the tax hike. 

“Voters took note. In 2020, 53% of people voted against the graduated income tax despite Pritzker putting the full weight of his office and campaign behind it. Voters sent a clear message that they don’t share Pritzker's high tax governing vision,” Mark Cavers wrote in an op-ed for Prairie State Wire at the time.