Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / 2026 Election Questionnaire: Caroline McCree, State Representative, 75th District

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2026 Election Questionnaire: Caroline McCree, State Representative, 75th District · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six election questionnaire Caroline McCree State Representative, seventy
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  fifth District, Written by Marcus Jackson. This article is being
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  read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  Name Caroline McCree. What office are you seeking Ale House,
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  seventy fifth district. What is your political party Democrat? What
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  is your current age? Forty five? Occupation and employer health
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  information management, chart correction specialist, mass General Brigham VIT's what offices,
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  if any have you previously held? None? City or kill
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  campaign website, vote tim ye Cree dot com Education associates
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  in health information technology and holds an archaecredential through Ashima
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  Community Involvement. I run a local women's Facebook group and
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  am active with the Kendall County chapter of Indivisible. We
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  have been active the last year with organizing local protests
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  and food drives, marital status, immediate family divorce with two teens,
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  regulation for data centers to protect residents, expanding services available
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  through the county health departments or other local organizations to
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  fill in healthcare gaps, and to help with the homeless
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  or homeless prevention. Reduction of the cost of living, such
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  as property taxes, so I would really love to help
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  expand programs at the high school level to promote working
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  in the trades and other skilled careers that have unions.
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  More workers in these careers will not only improve the
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  lives of the workers, but will also improve the quality
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  of work and products produced in the communities where they work.
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  This would also go hand in hand with trying to
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  attract businesses to the community that will improve our lives
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  instead of impeding on them. Responsible economic growth is the
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  key to this. I don't think anyone elected officials should
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  be able to serve in one seat more than ten
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  years total. Therefore, a state rep would be limited to
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  five two year terms maximum. I know the financial burden
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  is great, but we have so many state employees who
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  have put in their time over the years, and we
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  have an obligation to ensure they will have the retirement
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  that they were promised. Reducing pension obligations will do nothing
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  but to turn quality workers from joining the state workforce.
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  We may have to get creative with revenue, such as
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  shifting where revenue is spent, but I believe it is
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  possible to do so without constantly having to raise taxes
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  in every area of our lives. Again, there is likely
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  some wiggle room with reallocating tax revenue that we already
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  have coming in instead of increasing property taxes. People are
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  getting nickeled and dimed to the point where they are
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  getting priced out of their homes that they have lived
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  in for decades, Especially if someone has already paid off
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  their home. They shouldn't be taxed so much that they
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  still can't afford to live there. However, our schools definitely
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  also still need the funding. We might be able to
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  make a plan with local schools to do separate fundraising
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  that might be able to fill in gaps that would
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  otherwise normally be paid with tax revenue. I know fundraising
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  will likely have a minimal effect, but anything to keep
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  taxes from increasing is a welcome relief to the community.
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  The idea of the Act has good intentions, but I
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  feel that judges should still have more control over the
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  criteria that would qualify them to set bail, such as
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  with repeat offenders. I don't necessarily think it's reasonable to
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  keep someone in jail for months and months over a
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  minor infraction just because they are unable to pay bail,
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  but repeat offenders who repeat the same crimes over and over,
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  and absolutely the people who are accused of violent crimes
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  should have more stipulations to get out of jail pre trial.
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  It might also be a good idea to have electronic
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  monitoring for some of these people even after they are
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  released from jail, with or without bail. Overall, I feel
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  like we have a pretty safe district. However, I definitely
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  feel like people who keep committing the same types of crimes,
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  especially when they are done in close succession, should face
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  additional consequences, such as electronic monitoring or cash bail. If
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  the person has underlying mental health issues that are contributing
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  to them committing these repeat crimes, they should be required
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  to get treatment for their mental health condition, or at
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  least evaluated and cleared by mental health professional before they
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  are able to be fully off of court supervision. I
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  am pro choice when it comes to all reproductive choices
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  for women and men. This includes elective sterilization in addition
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  to abortion rights. I also don't think that medical professionals
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  should be able to dictate how someone gives birth as
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  long as it is safe for mother and baby. I
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  personally had to jump through many hoops when having my
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  second child just because I didn't want to be forced
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  into a repeat sea section. It shouldn't be so hard
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  for someone to avoid surgery if they don't want to
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  go through it again, if it is safe to attempt
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  to avoid. I also believe that if someone chooses at
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  an appropriate age to go through gender affirming care, they
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  should not be limited on doing so. We need to
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  give people control of their own bodies, especially when their
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  choices are not affecting others in the CA community. Our
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  country was set up not only to give the states
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  their own rights, but also to have state and federal
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  government be separate. I don't see how that is any
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  different when it comes to sanctuary protections. It also financially
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  doesn't make sense for local law enforcement to get involved
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  with federal law enforcement by assisting them. Local law enforcement
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  is not paid with the same funds that federal law
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  enforcement is, so why should they be expected to put
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  in the extra expense to assist. There are only limited
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  situations when federal law enforcement gets involved with local law enforcement,
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  so it should be the same with local assisting federal
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  There are so many people in the state that need
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  help affording their healthcare costs, including insurance. There are way
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  too many working poor in our country. There are even
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  more people who fall in between, where they make too
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  much money to get public assistance, but when having to
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  pay for things such as their health insurance and medical
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  expenses fully on their own, they end up struggling with
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  other living costs. When I was transitioning from being a
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  stay at home married mom to being a divorce working mom,
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  experienced this first hand. If people are working and trying
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  to support their families, they shouldn't have to worry about
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  also going through bankruptcy if someone gets sick or injured.
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  Medicaid should definitely be available to more people so that
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  they can have affordable health insurance. I think that, just
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  like with other laws, there should be a minimum set
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  of regulations at the state level, and the local municipalities
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  can make more restrictive regulations if they wish. However, I
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  have seen, at least with the Data Center proposals in Yorkville,
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  that if there aren't minimum regulations at the state level
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  to protect their residents, the local municipalities don't always make
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  decisions that include protection over profit ie potential tax revenue.
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  I think existing nuclear power plants should be upgraded and
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  expanded as long as they remain safe to the community.
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  Nuclear energy clearly is safer in the respective pollution, but
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  comes with its own set of safety concerns if expanding
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  closer to residential areas. I don't think creating new nuclear
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  power plants would go over with the communities very well,
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  but expanding where they already are and making sure that
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  the aging plants are upgraded to remain safe seems like
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  a good idea at this point. With the state trying
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  to transition away from fossil fuels for energy production, something
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  else has to fill in the gaps. Nuclear energy clearly
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  would be able to do that much easier than other
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  green options such as wind and solar. However, I think
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  any green source of energy is helpful to us right now,
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  especially with rising energy costs. The state should absolutely offer
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  incentives to builders to add additional affordable housing and communities
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  where there are shortages, such as in many of the
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  communities in this district. Adding additional housing will not only
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  allow people to not spend most of their income on
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  their rental costs, but it will also allow more people
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  to have home ownership. It is out of reach currently
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  for so many people, not only because of the current
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  housing prices, but also the fact that the supply is
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  extremely low. People shouldn't have to move out of their
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  communities so that they can afford a roof over their heads,
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  but unfortunately that is the reality for a lot of people.
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  Home Ownership helps strain in communities, so if the state
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  took more of an active role to attract these builders,
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  they would not only be improving the state, but also
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  helping the local economy and sense of community. The state
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  should absolutely have strict regulations to protect local water supplies
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  and to prevent contributing to rising energy costs. It's not
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  fair to have a company come in in hog resources
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  that we all need to survive. Water in this district
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  is depleting in multiple cities, causing them to need to
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  take steps to hooking the water supply up to Lake Michigan.
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  It doesn't make logical sense to allow a company who
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  may use millions of gallons of water a day to
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  squander the existing supply before the switch occurs, or to
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  come in right after the community has already had to
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  pay increased costs in order for the Lake Michigan connection
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  to be covered, Restrictions on how they are cooled should
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  be in place. To prevent excess water usage or possible
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  pollution of the existing waterways or water supplies. With the
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  energy costs, there is no perfect solution to keep them down,
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  considering the way that our power grid is connected to
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  twelve other states with whom we share our energy costs. However,
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  I believe that they should be restricted to a certain
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  amount of energy used from the grid per day and
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  not be allowed to supplement with sources that will be
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  damaging to the community, such as gas or diesel power generators,
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  even if they don't necessarily need more energy than what
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  they are restricted to. They should also be required to
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  contribute to green energy production to try to keep costs
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  down for everyone. I see no harm in them throwing
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  some solar panels on their roofs and maybe having several
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  wind turbines around their property. If they are going to
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  come into communities and the residents are unable to stop
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  their approval, they should at least be contributing to reduction
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  of harm. Aside from the usual tax cuts that may
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  be given to any company, I don't feel that it
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  is appropriate for taxpayers money to be given in access
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  to any business to either keep the business in the
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  state or attract it to a new area, especially a
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  nationally renowned sports team should have the funds to be
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  able to pay for a new stadium without taxpayer assistance.
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  If taxpayer assistance is granted, there should be a future
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  promise of tax rebates given to those in the community
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  who help pay for the stadium, kind of like the
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  casino credits given on utility bills and Juliet when I
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  live there. I definitely believe AI is going to become
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  a part of everyone's lives in the very near future,
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  but it should be regulated to prevent harm from occurring
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  with the students. This could be in the form of
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  personal data protection and also to prevent nefarious use of AI.
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  I also believe that the more that AI is used
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  in education in everyday life, the more reliant people will
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  become on it instead of thinking for themselves like we
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  have always done. MY top donors at this point are
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  friends and family. I have not yet received any contributions
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  from any companies or larger amounts from people that I
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  don't personally know.