This spring marks the 150th anniversary of professional baseball in the United States. The celebration will include the arc of baseball history: Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, Shoeless Joe, the Gas House Gang, Jackie Robinson, the Go-Go Sox, Brock-for-Broglio, McGwire vs. Sosa, the end of “the Curse” in 2016 and so much more.

DOWNSTATE
Push to reopen minimum-security unit within Tamms Correctional Center. The 700-bed facility, which contains a minimum-security work camp, used to support hundreds of jobs in economically-challenged Alexander County in far southern Illinois. Shut down during the budget crisis of the early 2010s, the facility has burdened the Department of Corrections ever since, as the Department has to expend funds to maintain the building complex and keep up its infrastructure.

After 30 years in the corporate world then stints as the Frankfort Township Clerk and a Will County board member, our guest decided to take her experience and talents to Springfield. Even so, she still finds time for kayaking, backpacking, and her passion for quilting.

Our guest is 37th District State Representative Margo McDermed.

Ruth Hanna McCormick and fellow women’s suffragist
Anna Howard Shaw, 1914.

When the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution became law in 1920 it might have extended voting rights to women, but it certainly did not mark the beginning of women’s involvement in American politics. For decades, women had been prominent leaders in the movements for abolition, social welfare, temperance and suffrage, just to name a few. In 1913 Ruth Hanna McCormick had helped lead the fight for the first women’s suffrage law in Illinois.

TAXES
Tax Foundation finds Pritzker tax proposal would have devastating effect on Illinois economy. Illinois, which is already one of the highest-taxed states in the nation in terms of sales taxes and local property taxes, would add income taxes to this dismal list of rankings. Under Gov. Pritzker’s proposed Illinois tax rates on individual and corporate income – rates that could be subject to revision – corporate income would be taxed at 10.45%, the third-highest rate among the 50 states. Pass-through business income used by a wide variety of farmers and small businesses would be taxed at 9.45%, the fourth-highest rate for pass-through small-business income among the 50 states.

Illinois state legislators Katherine Hancock Goode, Florence Fifer Bohrer,
Rena Elrod, and Lottie Holman O’Neill pictured in Springfield in 1925.
Photo from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum.

One hundred years ago, Illinois became the first state in the nation to ratify the 19th Amendment, extending equal voting rights to women. It took another year for 35 more states to follow suit, but the Amendment was eventually ratified in August 1920. It did not take long for a pair of Illinois trailblazers to start on their way to becoming the first women elected to the Illinois General Assembly.

At just over 40, our guest today has already served on the city council of two northern Illinois communities and has been advocating for residents of the Rock River Valley in the Illinois House since 2011.

In our conversation he gives credit to a high school teacher for his interest in the political system and answers questions about a particular suit he wore to Arlington Raceway.

We talk issues under the dome with 69th District State Representative Joe Sosnowski.

TAXES
Gov. Pritzker proposes a $3.4 billion tax hike on Illinois families and businesses. On Thursday, March 7, Governor J.B. Pritzker finally unveiled his plan for a graduated income tax in Illinois. Pritzker’s proposed rates would result in a $3.4 billion tax hike on Illinois families and businesses.

The Governor’s proposal would move Illinois from a flat income tax rate of 4.95% to a graduated income tax with six tax brackets. Families and small businesses with income between $250,000-$500,000 would pay a state tax rate of 7.75%, while the highest rate of 7.95% would apply to all income over $1,000,000. As many small business owners file their tax returns as individuals, Pritzker’s tax hike would hit Illinois small businesses especially hard.

Two members of the National Woman’s Party being arrested
as they picket in front of the White House, 1917

When Dr. Anna Howard Shaw arrived in Springfield in the spring of 1919, her accomplishments in the cause of women’s suffrage were well known. A close friend of Susan B. Anthony, Dr. Shaw had been a leader in the fight for equal voting rights since the late 1880s. Even before then she was a trailblazer, as the first woman to become a minister in the Methodist Protestant Church and a powerful voice for the temperance movement. She also picked up a medical degree along the way.

TAXES
House Republicans File Resolution Opposing Gov. Pritzker’s Unfair Tax. This week,Illinois House Republicans filed House Resolution 153, which states unified opposition to Governor Pritzker’s plan to tax small businesses and middle-class families out of the state through the implementation of a graduated income tax - an “Unfair Tax”.

“Illinoisans cannot afford another income tax increase and we cannot afford a system that allows politicians to play with rates and brackets just to fill budget holes,” said Assistant Republican Leader Avery Bourne. “A graduated income tax will inevitably bring a tax increase on a majority of Illinoisans and will hurt small businesses - making us even less competitive with our surrounding states. I’m proud to stand in opposition to Governor Pritzker’s proposed tax increase.”