Voters statewide will decide whether nearly 2,300 southern Naperville and Aurora taxpayers should send $30 million in additional income taxes to Springfield.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s “fair tax” plan falls far short of the revenue needed to pay for his spending promises – feeding fears of future tax hikes on middle-class families.

The elections scheduled for November 2020 are already injecting uncertainty into the economy, and the progressive income tax ballot question will make matters worse.

Recent polling shows many Illinoisans would not trust state lawmakers with expanded taxing authority under a progressive income tax system.

The Illinois General Assembly and governor devised 20 different ways to take more money from taxpayers to finance spending on government operations and infrastructure.

Band-Aid fixes and spending-heavy compromises were rampant. And now it’s all coming home to roost.

Contrary to claims from both Republicans and Democrats, and despite raising nearly $1.1 billion in new taxes and fees for operations, the fiscal year 2020 budget is out of balance by between $574 million and $1.3 billion.

Springfield politicians talking out of both sides of their mouths on tax “fairness” is one of many reasons they didn’t deserve a raise.

An amendment that would allow lawmakers to scrap Illinois’ constitutionally protected flat income tax and replace it with graduated tax rates will appear as a referendum question on voters’ 2020 ballots.

Caving to pressure from the governor would risk the well-being of Illinois.