Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, his wife and brother-in-law are the subject of a federal criminal investigation arising from property tax breaks on a Pritzker mansion in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, WBEZ reports.
A 2018 Cook County Inspector General investigation found now-Illinois First Lady M.K. Pritzker directed workers to remove toilets from the mansion in order to declare it uninhabitable, which resulted in more than $331,000 in property tax breaks.
The report called this a “scheme to defraud” taxpayers and Pritzker pledged to repay the money. But the governor and his wife may now face legal consequences.
Illinoisans are no stranger to criminal investigations into the state’s chief executive. Four of the past 10 Illinois governors have gone to prison.
The ongoing federal probe will cast further doubt on one of Pritzker’s key political objectives: removing the state’s flat income tax protection in order to install a $3.4 billion progressive income tax hike. His plan relies on a political promise that the middle class will not see further tax hikes under a progressive, or graduated, income tax regime – and that wealthy Illinoisans will pay what’s “fair."
read more:
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/pritzker-under-federal-investigation-for-property-tax-scheme/
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