Rhys Read is a certified public accountant by training who spent his career as a corporate controller and treasurer, including running a pension fund, and who built fraud-prevention controls for a living. He does not have talking points; he has worked-out solutions. Here is exactly what he would do, and how it differs from a record built over eight terms in Springfield.
Illinois has among the highest property taxes in the country, and much of it is hidden inside your rent; a large share of a renter's monthly payment can go to property taxes they never see itemized. Rhys would require every lease to show a clear top-line box, right next to the rent, listing how much of that payment is property tax, calculated by a simple square-footage allocation. Retail and commercial properties would post what they pay. You cannot fix a tax you cannot see.
Rep. Mussman voted for the 2019 Rebuild Illinois revenue law (Public Act 101-0032) that doubled the state motor fuel tax, from 19 to 38 cents a gallon — another tax increase on the same families already carrying some of the highest property taxes in the country.
Rhys supports Illinois's flat income tax, and he would deliver real relief inside it. The personal exemption, set at $1,000 back in 1969, sits at just $2,925 today. Rhys would raise it toward $15,000, phased in and indexed to inflation, so a working family keeps thousands more of what they earn, paid for by holding the line on the spending growth that drives Springfield's deficits, not by raising anyone else's taxes.
Rep. Mussman voted for the graduated income-tax rate schedule and co-sponsored the effort to write a graduated tax into the state constitution, then voted to put it on the ballot. In November 2020, Illinois voters rejected that amendment, 53 percent to 47 percent. To be fair to the record: she voted against the 2017 income-tax increase.
Illinois has the worst-funded pensions in the nation: roughly $144 billion in unfunded liabilities, per the state's own Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, with every state system below 50 percent funded and drifting the wrong way. The hard truth is that the Illinois Constitution currently locks that broken structure in place and puts real reform out of reach, which is why nothing ever changes in Springfield. Rhys will advocate a constitutional amendment so Illinois can finally restructure its pensions onto a sustainable, payable footing. Rhys ran a pension fund for a living, and he will tell you what Springfield will not: doing nothing does not protect these pensions, it marches them toward the day the money runs out.
Rep. Mussman voted to override the governor's veto and enact the FY2017 state spending package. Sixteen years in Springfield have not closed the pension gap; it has grown.
Illinois is among the most gerrymandered states in the country. Rhys would draw fair districts along county, township, and municipal lines, in regular shapes, so that every voter can tell at a glance who represents them, instead of the tortured, discontinuous maps designed to protect incumbents.
Rep. Mussman voted for the Democratic legislature's 2021 redistricting maps, the same kind of insider map-drawing that keeps long-tenured incumbents safe.
The Bears bought the former Arlington Park racetrack in 2021, a site with expressway access to Illinois 53 and I-294 and a Metra station at the door, and they were ready to finance, own, and maintain a new stadium themselves. Instead, greed and roadblocks from state and local government stalled the project, and now the team is looking to Indiana, taking the jobs and tax revenue with it. Rhys has a specific plan to keep them here. The Bears still fund and own the stadium; property tax on the stadium, its parking, practice facilities, and team offices is frozen at the Arlington Park level and rises no more than 5 percent or inflation, whichever is lower, while any new retail built on the site is taxed at full value. The roughly one billion dollars in surrounding utilities and road work is paid not by residents but by bonds retired through a 2 to 4 percent amusement tax on tickets at the stadium. And IDOT prioritizes rebuilding Palatine Road as limited-access from I-294 toward Illinois 53, to cut congestion and open new development. Fast, targeted action keeps the Bears, and the economic development that comes with them, on the Illinois side of the border.
A fiscal conservative who reads the record and answers to District 56, not to Springfield insiders.
Put parents back at the center of their children's education, and refocus higher education on real outcomes and value.
Support the officers who keep our communities safe, and cooperate with, not obstruct, federal law enforcement.
Secure Illinois elections so every voter can trust that the count is accurate and the rules are followed.
Stop driving Illinois families, iconic institutions, and good jobs across the border with high taxes and heavy-handed government.
If you want a representative who does the math before he spends your money, help send Rhys Read to Springfield.
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