Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker and Republican challenger Darren Bailey sounded off on issues important to farmers Monday during a visit to McLean County.
The Illinois Agricultural Legislative Roundtable [IALR] hosted an agricultural forum at Funk Farms Trust in Shirley. Pritzker and Bailey talked about issues facing farmers, in addition to more general topics pertinent to the race for governor.
Republican U.S. Senate nominee Don Tracy also spoke during the event.
Bailey, who ran unsuccessfully against Pritzker in 2022, said the three focuses of his campaign leading into November are affordability, safety and education. He also highlighted his experience as a third-generation farmer during his remarks.
Data centers and energy costs
Both candidates talked about how they would approach data center proposals, as they continue to pop up around the country.
Bailey said he is against subsidizing data centers, and that any proposal in Illinois should include them providing their own energy and water.
“We stop giving billion-dollar companies that are making billions of dollars massive tax incentives because all that does is force your property taxes up,” he said.
Bailey also said local units of government should decide what regulations are put in place for data centers.
Pritzker said in his comments that he would like to reform Regional Transmission Organizations [RTOs] to combat rising electricity bills, citing them as why Illinois sees rising energy costs despite state government resistance to data center approvals without firm regulations.
Under current arrangements, the northern third of the state is on an energy grid with a number of states, and the rest is on a different grid with different states.
“It means that when they, for example, are using a lot of electricity in Kansas, you're paying for it. In northern Illinois, when they're using a lot of electricity in Ohio, you're paying for it. At least, people who live there are paying for it. And it shouldn't be that way,” said Pritzker.
The Chicagoland area is part of the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland [PJM] RTO that encompasses the aforementioned states, Virginia, most of Ohio, much of Kentucky and a few other small portions of states east of Illinois. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator [MISO] RTO Central Region encompasses the rest of Illinois, all of Wisconsin and Michigan, most of Indiana and parts of Missouri and Kentucky.
“We've conveyed that to the Trump administration that we need new reforms of those RTOs because we need to bring your electricity prices down, and one way to do that is to make sure that we don't have every state eating up well, frankly, states like ours’ energy,” said Pritzker.
Bailey said the state should invest in nuclear energy, for which the 1987 moratorium expired in June, and roll back moratoriums on coal and natural gas to help the state produce more energy.
“We were a net exporter of energy,” said Bailey, referring to when he became state representative in 2019. “But that turned around all too fast in one single year. We can change. We can turn it back, and we must and I believe we will.”
Pritzker responded later saying the state is still a net exporter of energy.
“In fact, we only consume about 80% of the electricity that we produce in the state,” he said.
Supply costs
Each candidate addressed concerns of rising costs for farmers, particularly for fertilizer.
Pritzker said tariffs, trade wars and the ongoing war with Iran and costs associated with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are to blame for much of the problem.
“I happen to be in favor of targeted tariffs to protect industries in the United States, but not these across-the-board massive tariffs,” said Pritzker.
Bailey likened the effects of the current global economy to that of farming, saying the U.S. economy is currently in waiting-for-the-harvest mode.
“I called it the same from day one as I do now: a short-term pain for a long-term gain, and I believe it's the only tool that we have to to get competitive again,”he said.
Bailey said he would be more willing to communicate with the president than Pritzker as issues from trade wars become apparent.
Estate tax
Bailey said he is in favor of bigger changes to the estate tax in Illinois than currently being supported by Pritzker.
The estate tax is a concern for farmers, as the current average age for farmers in Illinois is 58.6 years. Less than one-tenth of Illinois farmers are under 35.
Illinois charges a progressive rate between 0.8% and 16% on taxable values over $4 million. The federal government does not charge until $15 million for single tax filers, with that threshold having been nearly doubled in the first Trump term and incrementally raising again each year since.
“At least getting a start to make it match the federal level so that we can preserve our future that's disappearing every week in the farm sales as we see it,” said Bailey.
Pritzker said he will be supporting the Family Farm Preservation Act, originally introduced by Bloomington-Normal area lawmakers Sen. Dave Koehler and Rep. Sharon Chung. The bill raises the threshold to $6 million, only taxes dollars after the first $6 million and ties the exemption to inflation.
“It's time for us to make sure that farmers are able to hand their farms down through the generations, as you have been over many generations up to now, and do it with less tax on that transfer,” said Pritzker.
The bill failed in the state legislature a year prior due to budget constraints.
“This is something that is about making sure that our family farms are able to be handed down from generation to generation, and it's important to me to make sure that we're finding the wherewithal within the budget to do that,” said Pritzker.
He added furthering education for junior high and high school students also could help reverse a rising average age for farmers in Illinois.
