By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The next time the legislature is here, it’ll be preparing for Gov. JB Pritzker’s State of the State and budget speech. That’s Feb. 21 -a week from next Wednesday. 

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Savanna) is trying to get out in front of it. She says Republicans will oppose any attempt to switch Illinois’ income tax from flat to graduated.

Wait, voters just turned down that constitutional amendment a few years ago.

“I think some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are already stating that they would like to take a whack at it,” McCombie told reporters in her Capitol office Thursday. “Also, if our budgets continue to go up every year by a couple of billion dollars, there has to be a revenue source. We are not passing policies to grow our state, so the only way to do that is to tax the citizens of Illinois.”

State Rep. Norene Hammond, the House Republicans’ “budgeteer,” said she just wants cooperation. “Certainly, it didn’t happen last year from our lack of reaching out, because Leader McCombie met with Speaker (Chris) Welch (D-Hillside) every single week,” said Hammond. “And every single week offered our help, and every single week we were promised a meeting. Ultimately, it never happened.”

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].