The Grassroots Corner December 4, 2020

Illinois FAIRtax-er and Board of Delegates Member, Mark Pearson, thinks the FAIRtax is another big idea that can alter America’s course for the good. Mark would like to help move Illinois towards its own state-level version of the real FAIRtax, not the so-called “Fair Tax” that was recently rejected by Illinois voters.

That proposal was not anything at all like the real FAIRtax.  It would have changed Illinois’s state income tax from a flat tax to a graduated tax.  Those advocating for a flat tax as the fix to our broken Federal income tax should note that many in Illinois found their flat tax to be discriminatory and unfair.

Mark sees the Illinois political establishment that brought him and his fellow Illinoisans the so-called “Fair Tax” as an impediment to real tax reform. Now Mark will have a chance to bring the REAL FAIRtax to Illinois.

Mark became interested in the real FAIRtax in the early 90's listening to Neal Boortz.  He was quickly convinced that the FAIRtax would be a powerful way to steer the nation away from the scourge of politics as usual. Mark attended a couple of rallies in Georgia and was also at the meeting of Americans for Fair Taxation in Houston in June 2014 when management was handed over to the grassroots.

Mark is no fan of the income tax, believing that taxing income deprives people of their freedom.  He also believes that an income tax has many serious negative ramifications  for the country and its government. In addition to supporting the FAIRtax, Mark also supports the Convention of States (“COS”) movement and thinks the FAIRtax will benefit if COS gains traction.

Now for a little about Mark. At 63, Mark has been retired for over nine years from his job as a correctional psychologist, most recently for the State of Illinois. Mark’s twenty-five-year career took him through seven different institutions within five different agencies.

He has worked with a wide variety of populations including both male and female adult inmates, patients with mental health and developmental disabilities, juvenile and juvenile justice patients, as well as a six-month stint with the Alabama Department of Corrections.

He has worked with everyone from multi-security women, to maximum security men, including death row inmates.  He has dealt with maximum security forensic males, who are very dangerous, and “high medium” security juvenile males. Mark was THE mental health unit of the Juvenile Boot Camp until that program was disbanded. The program was too successful.

The son of a milkman and the fourth of six sons, Mark earned his Associate of Arts degree from Black Hawk College in Moline, Illinois, and his Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts Degrees in General Experimental Psychology from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He received his Doctoral Clinical Training in Behavioral Medicine/Medical Psychology at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.



Mark’s hobbies include building and restoring houses, boats and airplanes, along with sailing and flying. Mark is a Guardian in an organization called Honor Flight. This organization provides a trip to Washington, D.C. to any honorably discharged veteran with an escorted tour to the relevant memorial. Mark, so far, has personally escorted a veteran. He would like to escort more, but COVID has limited his plans.

He also enjoys target shooting, and likes to dabble in thinking and writing about ideas to improve the world and society from both political and technical angles.  Finally, he is a faithful member of his local church.

Mark has been married to Patricia F. Pearson, Ph.D., for more than twenty years. He has two grown step daughters and four step grandchildren.
   

Yours In the FAIRtax Movement!

Jim Bennett
AFFT Grassroots Coordinator & Secretary
 

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