ILLINOIS VOTERS KEEP GETTING THE BILL. PRITZKER KEEPS ASKING FOR THE JOB.

After nearly eight years, higher fuel taxes, a broken promise and disappointing job growth demand a harder look at the governor seeking another term.

By Staff Writer | October 28, 2026

Most people would not keep paying a contractor who broke a clear promise without demanding an explanation. They would examine the work, question the bill and reconsider the next contract.

Then election season arrives, and party loyalty can make that same scrutiny feel like betrayal.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is asking Illinois voters for another four years. Before they agree, his record deserves the examination they would give anyone entrusted with their money.

He signed legislation doubling the state gasoline excise tax and establishing recurring inflation adjustments. He promised to reject legislative maps drawn by political insiders, then signed maps produced by the Democratic controlled legislature. Illinois ranked fifth worst for private sector job growth in the Illinois Policy Institute’s comparison covering 2018 through 2025.

These decisions and results reach beyond political arguments. They affect what families pay, where workers find opportunities and how effectively voters can hold government accountable.

Pritzker’s campaign is a request to keep exercising power over those lives. The job belongs to the public, and another term has to be earned.

At the gasoline pump, his record comes with a measurable price.

In 2019, Pritzker signed legislation increasing the state gasoline excise tax from 19 cents to 38 cents per gallon. The law also established automatic inflation adjustments, creating a mechanism for recurring increases without a fresh legislative vote each year. Today, the rate stands at 48.3 cents.

For someone buying 15 gallons every week, the difference between the former rate and today’s rate amounts to $228.54 annually. That money comes from the same account paying for groceries, insurance, utilities and repairs.

The collection does not end with the state excise tax. Federal gasoline tax is embedded in the price, while Illinois sales tax applies to taxable gasoline receipts and applicable local sales taxes add to the burden. The taxable price includes the federal gasoline tax and certain other embedded charges.

That gives the description “a tax on a tax” a factual basis. Part of the amount subject to sales tax already covers another tax.

Pritzker inherited that broader structure. He chose to increase the state’s share substantially within it. This year’s six month suspension of the scheduled inflation adjustment held the gasoline excise rate at 48.3 cents through December. It postponed another increase while preserving the existing charge.

Drivers continue paying the consequences of his signature every time they fill their tanks.

The same demand for accountability belongs inside the state budget. Illinois’ fiscal 2027 General Funds spending plan totals approximately $55.9 billion, representing the state’s main operating budget measure rather than spending across every state fund.

The Illinois Policy Institute, an advocacy organization critical of Pritzker’s fiscal approach, counts 63 tax and fee increases enacted during his tenure. Its tally identifies repeated decisions to collect additional revenue from households and businesses already balancing competing costs.

Those costs accumulate outside the Capitol. Families pay the additional charge at the pump alongside their other bills. Employers consider expenses when deciding whether to invest, raise prices or add another employee. A tax increase can be approved in a single legislative session and influence private decisions for years afterward.

Pritzker has had nearly eight years to demonstrate that the expanding cost of government delivers convincing results. Illinois’ employment record presents a substantial weakness in that case.

The Illinois Policy Institute reports a net gain of only 21,100 private sector jobs from 2018 through 2025, placing Illinois fifth worst nationally for private sector job growth over that period.

For a governor seeking a third term, that is a deeply disappointing result.

An expanding employment market gives workers more opportunities to advance, graduates more reasons to establish careers nearby and businesses greater confidence to grow. Weak growth limits those possibilities. It enters decisions about where to apply, where to invest and where to build a future.

Pritzker has spent nearly eight years influencing the conditions employers consider through taxes, regulations, infrastructure priorities and state spending. He is asking for four more while Illinois remains near the bottom of this employment growth ranking.

The migration figures add another concern.

The Illinois Policy Institute’s analysis of IRS migration records found a net loss of 55,609 people represented on tax returns and approximately $6 billion in adjusted gross income in the 2022 to 2023 data.

That income figure describes income associated with migrating taxpayers, rather than lost state tax revenue. The records do not establish why people moved. They document households and income changing state residence, with Illinois losing more than it gained in those flows.

Departing households take purchasing power with them. Communities can lose customers, workers, business owners and potential investment. Families face greater distances between generations.

Those consequences belong in the assessment of a governor asking voters to endorse his response to persistent economic weaknesses. Another term requires more than an acknowledgment that the problems are difficult. It requires a persuasive account of what his leadership has accomplished.

On credibility, the record offers an even clearer test.

During his 2018 campaign, Pritzker pledged to veto state legislative maps drawn by legislators, political party leaders or their staffs. When maps produced by the Democratic controlled legislature reached his desk in 2021, he signed them.

The commitment was specific, and the authority to enforce it was his.

District boundaries influence which communities vote together, how competitive elections become and how effectively residents can replace their representatives. Pritzker’s pledge addressed the power political insiders exercise over that process. His signature approved their work.

The congressional map he subsequently signed drew criticism as well. Capitol News Illinois reported that the Princeton Gerrymandering Project awarded it an overall F and estimated it would produce 14 likely Democratic districts and three likely Republican districts.

CHANGE Illinois delivered a blunt assessment.

“The map is undemocratic and leaves all voters without choices.”

CHANGE Illinois

Pritzker defended the congressional map as protecting diversity and minority representation. That explanation does not resolve the criticism of partisan advantage or erase his separate reversal on legislative mapmaking.

Every new campaign assurance arrives with that history attached. Voters have evidence of what happened to an explicit commitment once he held the power to keep it.

His financial record also includes credit rating improvements. In September, his office announced Illinois’ 12th upgrade since 2021 after S&P Global Ratings raised the state’s general obligation bond rating to A. Capitol News Illinois nevertheless reported that Illinois retained the lowest state credit rating.

The improvement belongs in the accounting. It does not fulfill the mapmaking pledge, reverse the gasoline tax increase or transform weak private sector job growth into a strong economic record.

Pritzker must answer for the whole of his tenure.

That obligation should matter to voters across party lines. A Democrat buying gasoline pays the same state tax as a Republican. An independent searching for a better job faces the same employment market. A broken commitment weakens public trust regardless of which party benefits.

Political loyalty offers no discount on the consequences.

Pritzker has led Illinois down an expensive path. The higher gasoline tax keeps collecting. The mapmaking promise remains broken. Disappointing private sector job growth leaves his claim to effective economic leadership facing a hard test.

For families already struggling with the cost of staying, additional taxes deepen the pressure. For communities losing residents, departures mean fewer customers, workers and neighbors. And when a governor abandons an explicit commitment on political maps, the damage reaches beyond one election. It gives people another reason to distrust the government asking for more of their money.

Pritzker owns the decisions he signed into law and the promise he chose not to keep. After nearly eight years, another campaign cannot substitute for the results Illinoisans deserved.

Another term would put their money, their opportunities and their future in his hands again.

Pritzker wants four more years. After nearly eight, is he worth what another four could cost you?

Official sources

Illinois General Assembly, Public Act 101 0032. Establishes the 2019 motor fuel tax increase and recurring inflation adjustments.

Illinois Department of Revenue, Motor Fuel Tax Rates and Fees. Documents the 48.3 cent gasoline rate and the temporary suspension of the scheduled 2026 adjustment. The annual household comparison assumes 15 gallons purchased weekly for 52 weeks.

Illinois Department of Revenue, Illinois Tax Matrix. Explains the treatment of embedded taxes, including the exclusion of Illinois’ own motor fuel excise tax from the sales tax calculation.

Illinois Office of Comptroller, statement on the fiscal 2027 budget. Documents the $55.9 billion spending plan.

Internal Revenue Service, migration data for 2022 to 2023 and migration methodology. Explain the returns, individuals and income represented in the migration records.

Governor’s Office, September 2026 credit rating upgrade. Documents the S&P upgrade announcement and the administration’s cumulative upgrade count.

Secondary sources and independent analysis

WBEZ, coverage of Pritzker’s approval of legislative maps. Documents his campaign pledge and subsequent action.

Capitol News Illinois, congressional maps signed into law. Reports Princeton’s assessment, CHANGE Illinois’ criticism and the governor’s defense.

Princeton Gerrymandering Project, Illinois map assessments. Provides access to assessments of Illinois redistricting plans.

Civic Federation, May 2026 motor fuel tax report. Explains the application of sales tax to gasoline prices containing federal and applicable local excise taxes.

Capitol News Illinois, S&P Global upgrades Illinois’ credit rating. Explains the upgrade and Illinois’ standing among the states.

Illinois Policy Institute analyses of tax and fee increases, private sector job growth and IRS migration records. The institute is a policy advocacy organization. Its tallies and calculations are attributed to it in this article. The employment comparison covers 2018 through 2025; Pritzker took office in January 2019