I was honored to receive CAIR-Chicago's Trailblazer Award, along with my friend Dilara Sayeed, last night at their annual dinner. Thank you, CAIR, for your unmatched advocacy, legal and media work as you fight for justice and civil rights.
I dedicate this award to all of the volunteers, fellows and interns of the Rashid campaign, especially the high school and college students who powered our campaign and spoke with tens of thousands of voters. I look forward to continuing our work together through Empower Southwest!
I am voting Yes on the Fair Tax, and here are three reasons why you should too:
1) The Fair Tax will allow the state to contribute more to education, which will reduce pressure on school districts to continue raising your property taxes. If you’re a homeowner, look at your property tax bill and see where your money goes. Overwhelmingly it’s to schools, because the state is underfunding education.
2) A flat rate across incomes is unfair. A person making $30,000 taxed at 5% is paying $1,500 that they need for rent and basic necessities. The wealthy person making $500,000 a year is not facing potential eviction or foreclosure. They are not choosing between paying property taxes or student loans. If their rate changes to 7.85% as is proposed, they still will be doing very, very well. The fair approach—adopted by the federal government and 32 states, including many Republican states—is for millionaires and billionaires to pay a higher rate.
3) Protect middle class and low-income families from being overburdened with taxes. The idea that this gives the legislature more power to tax an ordinary family or business is not true. They have the power to tax all of us right now, and can change the rate from 4.95% to anything else at any time. This amendment simply gives them the power to ask the wealthiest Illinoisans to pay their fair share to help get our state on the right track.
To build a more hopeful and more prosperous future for Illinois, join me in voting Yes on the Fair Tax.
