South Central Reporter

First-year state Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) finds Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to be a total hypocrite.

“It’s just beyond ironic to me that the guy who is pushing to raise everyone’s taxes is evading them himself,” Wilhour told the South Central Reporter. “It puts a cloud of corruption over everything and makes it harder for the state to get to the big things we need to address.”

News outlets report that Prizker and at least two family members including his wife are under federal investigation for having all the toilets removed from one of their Gold Coast properties in order to assure themselves of a lower property tax bill. WBEZ Radio has claimed that Pritzker shaved in the neighborhood of $331,000 off his property tax bill with the strategy, which dropped the market value price on his mansion from $6.25 million to just over $1 million.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker

Cook County Inspector General Patrick Blanchard is on record blasting the new governor’s actions as a “scheme to defraud.” While Pritzker, through his attorney Marc Elias of the Perkins Coie law firm, has denied all wrongdoing, Wilhour said it all comes down to what voters believe.

“It doesn’t help him that all this came to light when he’s pushing for so-called tax reforms,” he said. “It comes down to what people vote on the issue at the ballot box and if they trust politicians to do what they say they will do. In Illinois, I believe the vast majority of politicians get in the field for the right reasons, but there is a rich heritage of corruption here.”

Pritzker added that neither he nor his wife have been contacted by law enforcement about to the case.