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| Corruption |
We
need to stop the corruption that exists in Illinois government.
The recent conviction of Tony Rezko and the testimony of Ali
Atta and Stuart Levine have shown how pervasive the practice
of Pay to Play is in Illinois government. If elected, I will
introduce legislation that would end Pay to Play and enact some
of the toughest ethics legislation in the country. |
| Gas Prices |
Here in Illinois,
we have the highest gas prices in the country. One reason for
that is because the State of Illinois imposes the fourth largest tax burden on
gasoline in the nation. We have both a state fuel tax and a state sales tax on
gasoline. Instead of raising the sales tax on gasoline, as my opponent, Kathy
Ryg has voted to do, we could bring immediate relief to Illinois consumers by
eliminating the sales tax on gas altogether. |
| Property Taxes |
Illinois families
are also burdened by ever increasing property taxes which put
an enormous strain on our family budgets. I believe that we can
help relieve the strain of high property taxes by doubling the
Illinois income tax credit that homeowners receive for payment
of their property taxes. We can also increase the Homestead Exemption
from $6,000 to $7,500 and increase the Senior Homestead Exemption
from $4,000 to $5,500. |
| Illinois Roads |
Despite the fact
that a sizeable portion of the State budget is dedicated to maintaining
our roads, Illinois roads are still in terrible shape. Why is
that? A big part of the problem is that, over the last five years,
the Blagojevich Administration has siphoned off over 3 Billion
dollars from funds dedicated to maintaining our roads, into
the general fund, to be spent on pet projects.
We need to send people to Springfield who will not give in
to Governor Blagojevich and allow him to divert this money
from the Roads Fund, but instead will fight to spend it the
way it was intended to be spent, repairing and maintaining
our roads, which are badly in need of repair. |
| Budget Priorities |
The Illinois Constitution
requires that a balanced budget be submitted by the end of May
each year. But Springfield continues to ignore the Constitution
and spend money that it does not have. The Governor attempts
to get around this by failing to pay the State’s pension
obligations to state employees and failing to make Medicaid payments
to Illinois doctors. This has put an increasing strain on the
ability of doctors in Illinois to serve their patients and has
resulted in an overflow of Illinois patients into hospitals and
clinics in neighboring states.
We need to be serious about our priorities in Springfield,
so that we focus first on paying our bills that we owe to state
employees and our own citizens, before embarking on new, ever
expansive government programs that we can’t afford. |
| State Spending |
Over and over,
we hear Illinois politicians moan that we need more revenue
in state government. But the cause of the budget crisis we
face in Illinois is not due to a lack of revenue but runaway
spending. Since 1990, state spending has increased by 44%,
while the population of Illinois has increased by only 12%.
We
can put a brake on this reckless government spending by applying
PAYGO to the state budget process. PAYGO simply means that
we pay as we go, Any
increase in spending must be offset by cuts in the budget elsewhere.
It would make lawmakers think twice in before embarking on a
new program. |
| Transparency |
One way to reign
in both runaway spending and government corruption is to introduce
more transparency in the budget process. We need to a have an
easily accessible, searchable online database in which we can
track every government contract, every expenditure, its purpose,
and who authorized it. Legislation that would do just that unanimously
passed the Illinois House, where it unfortunately met the fate
of most good legislation in Illinois and died in the Illinois
Senate. |
| Jobs |
With it's high taxes,
excessive regulation and runaway spending, Illinois ranks 48th
in the nation in economic performance and 47th in job growth
ahead of only Michigan, Ohio and Louisiana. Businesses and therefore
jobs, are leaving the state in droves. Over 727,150 people have
left Illinois in the past 10 years alone. Since 1998, Illinois
has suffered a net loss of 241,000 manufacturing jobs. The solution
to this problem is not more regulation on business, but to attract
more businesses and jobs back to Illinois. We can make Illinois
more attractive to business by cutting personal and corporate
tax rates and cutting back on state regulations. |
| Education |
Only 32 percent
of Illinois public elementary school students are reading at
grade level. In middle school, that number drops to 30 percent,
and by the time they reach 12th grade, only 20 percent are at
the level they need to succeed in college. The problem is not
a lack of funding. Funding for education in Illinois has risen
by an average of 4.3% a year for the past eight years. The solution
is increased competition in education. We can start by eliminating the cap on
charter schools in Illinois. We can also help families afford the cost of sending
their children to private schools by increasing the Illinois Education Expense
Tax Credit from $500 per family to $4,000 per child. |
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