Tax change will affect more than just the rich

It's amazing what marketing and propaganda can do. Countless commercials are appearing on TV about how Illinois" income tax system isn't fair.

I chuckle when I read letters to the editor in support of a "Fair" state income tax. The authors are clearly following a script provided by professionals that requires the use of the word "fair" four times or more. The theory is that if it's said often enough, it will be accepted as true.

Who wouldn't want something to be "fair"? Unfortunately for all of us, the issue of a progressive income tax arbitrarily deemed to be fair has been framed in the context of class warfare. Nobody will be surprised when the masses vote for a progressive tax that they're told will not affect them, only the "rich." What's missing is one key word: It won't affect them … yet.

Just as the temporary income tax hike wouldn't be made permanent and that lottery money was going to improve education funding, and just as campaign reform would take undue influence out of elections, the promise of taxing only the rich is a Trojan horse.

As the saying goes, voters get what they deserve. Sadly, most are following the lead of a governor who removed toilets from one of his mansions to reduce his real estate tax bill, deferring to him as the arbiter of fairness.

I suggest that in a last-ditch effort to accurately represent and be truly honest with the citizens of Illinois, that our leaders change our state slogan from "Land of Lincoln" to the "Land of Lemmings."

Keith Gray

Mettawa