Rockford Sun

Dixon Mayor Liandro “Li” Arenallo is hoping Gov. J.B. Pritzker comes to see the obvious.

“I find it really interesting how the governor’s progressive tax proposal didn’t come close to winning,” Arenallo told the DeKalb Times. “Hopefully, it will force the governor and his team to come to grips with the fact people have truly has enough of all the taxes.”

In the end, the tax the governor has been pushing since his days as a candidate as one that will only mean higher taxes for the state’s most affluent residents netted only 47% of the 60% of support from all voters it needed for passage.

After having pumped upwards of $50 million of his own money into a campaign created to sway voters, Arenallo said he also isn’t surprised to see the governor now lashing out over the measure being so roundly defeated, threatening everything from across-the-board tax hikes to severely “painful” cuts to counterbalance things as he sees fit.

Arenallo has had enough.

“The focus shouldn’t be on making cuts as painful as possible but working with both sides of the legislature to do what’s best for the people,” Arenallo added. “This shouldn’t be about him threatening 'painful' cuts. He needs to get serious and come up with a responsible budget like people elected him to do.”

Arenallo has long been a staunch critic of the governor’s signature legislative proposal, arguing that it never had the chance to do what the governor was selling it to voters as.

“Tax hikes fail to solve budget problems when there is no fiscal discipline,” he said. “Illinois has a spending problem, and our financial struggles will continue until that is solved, no matter how many new taxes the state passes.”