Hundreds of religious leaders from around the state marched on the headquarters of the Illinois Policy Institute in Springfield to demand the organization stop its continued false attacks on the campaign for a Fair Tax. The Illinois Policy Institute (IPI), an organization that has ties to several well-financed right wing groups, has campaigned against a movement to give voters a choice on the ballot in November to change Illinois’ tax policy from a regressive flat tax to a Fair Tax – with lower rates for lower incomes and higher rates for higher incomes. Despite the introduction of a rate structure that shows 94% of Illinoisans would get a tax cut, the IPI continues to manufacture false scenarios that attempt to scare lower and middle-income citizens.
As hundreds of demonstrators circled the block in front of the two story building that houses the institute, Rev. Jason Coulter of Ravenswood United Church of Christ said:
“The Illinois Policy Institute is being dishonest when they claim a Fair Tax is anything besides a tax cut for the overwhelming majority of Illinoisans. The smoke and mirrors about future rates if we drove off the fiscal cliff are designed to confuse and scare voters, all in an effort to protect an unjust status quo.”
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According to a report by the Guardian, the IPI has served as a conduit for the national State Policy Network, a group financed by America’s wealthiest corporate interests, including the billionaire Koch brothers. David Koch also co-founded Americans for Prosperity, an organization that has spent $150,000 on television ads attacking legislators who support a Fair Tax. The State Journal Register reports David From, the executive director for the Illinois chapter of Americans for Prosperity, called defeating a Fair Tax a top priority.
“We, the citizens of Illinois, should decide tax and budget policy, not lobbyists and lawmakers backed by the wealthiest corporate special interests in America,” added Rev. Coulter.
