Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Li Arellano Jr. shares the latest state legislative updates

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Talk Line: Li Arellano Jr. shares the latest state legislative updates · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You've joined the Waking Crew here
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Speaker 1: on FM ninety five to one and AM fourteen sixty
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Speaker 1: WIX and it's eight sixteen on your Monday morning, and
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Speaker 1: that means it's time for talk line. And today we're
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Speaker 1: joined by Lee Ariano, Junior, who represents the thirty seventh
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Speaker 1: Senate district here in northwest Illinois, including parts of Lee,
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Speaker 1: Whiteside and our surrounding counties. Senator Ariano serves in the
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Speaker 1: Illinois General Assembly in Springbuild and has been active on
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Speaker 1: issues ranging from state spending and economic policy to local infrastructure,
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Speaker 1: public safety, and more. Senator, thanks for getting up early
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Speaker 1: and being here with the Waking Crew.
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Speaker 2: Always glad to be here.
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Speaker 1: It's a beautiful morning, right it is. It is seventy degrees.
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Speaker 2: Right those fluky days in Illinois. Whar it's nice and
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Speaker 2: then it's call it's nice and it looks like we're
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Speaker 2: on a nice one, so that'll be good.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, good time to be out. You've you've been extra busy.
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Speaker 1: I've seen some of your posts on social media. You've
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Speaker 1: been out and about, and I think it's kind of
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Speaker 1: appropriate today Today we're going to start with what's happening
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Speaker 1: down in Springfield, right.
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Speaker 2: Governor JB.
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Speaker 1: Pritzker recently delivered his state Senate of the or excuse me,
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Speaker 1: State of the State and Budget address, outlining what a
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Speaker 1: roughly sixty fifty six billion dollars spending plan for the
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Speaker 1: next fiscal year aimed at maintaining state services while addressing
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Speaker 1: economic uncertainty. Senator, you've had some time to review that proposal.
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Speaker 1: What stood out to you most about the governor's budget
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Speaker 1: and do you have any concerns as lawmakers begin making
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Speaker 1: their way through it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I always have concerns under this governor.
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Speaker 2: I mean, we're going to see more tax increases. There's
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Speaker 2: new tax proposals. None of that new revenue is going
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Speaker 2: into property tax relief or into most of the things
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Speaker 2: I care about. So it continues a pattern, and not
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Speaker 2: as sharply as last year, but a pattern where we
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Speaker 2: have new taxes coming on board, and yet we're not
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Speaker 2: very aggressively paying down debt or pain into the kind
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Speaker 2: of future investments that I want to see. You know,
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Speaker 2: there's a trend line. I think if he had just
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Speaker 2: kept inflation since he took office and raised the budget
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Speaker 2: by inflation, this budget would be about six billion less
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Speaker 2: per year. That's a lot of money, and the frustration
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Speaker 2: for me is a fiscal conservative, is that extra six
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Speaker 2: billion while I wouldn't want to see it at all,
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Speaker 2: it's not going to pay down pension that it's not
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Speaker 2: going to pay into infrastructure. Actually we talked about this,
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Speaker 2: rural infrastructure has lost funding formulas, so that's very frustrating me.
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Speaker 2: So none of that damage was undone. And then some
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Speaker 2: of the key communities I look to to actually do
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Speaker 2: spending for, so even as a conservative's areas where I
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Speaker 2: think government needs to be involved in. One of them
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Speaker 2: is the developmentally disabled community that is being flatlined or
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Speaker 2: cut again during an inflationary period. We've talked before about
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Speaker 2: how I'm trying to advocate for children's advocacy centers. There's
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Speaker 2: no extra funding for those that has been kept mostly
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Speaker 2: flat as far as I can see. So the key
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Speaker 2: needs where I do want to see more spending is
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Speaker 2: not getting it yet somehow our budget as fifty six billion,
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Speaker 2: So that's the part where I really struggle to understand
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Speaker 2: the numbers. There are a few things that popped out
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Speaker 2: that I hope he moves forward, and I'm supportive of
3:10
Speaker 2: you know, he started talking a good game about nuclear energy.
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Speaker 2: Our nuclear bills are really bad for economic development, They're
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Speaker 2: really bad for our individual finances. Illinois used to be
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Speaker 2: an energy leader in costs and now we're kind of
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Speaker 2: middle of the road and heading the wrong direction. And
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Speaker 2: you know, up till now, in his governorship, Governor Pritzker
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Speaker 2: has been very against nuclear power. He's been against most
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Speaker 2: forms of power, but especially anything that interrupted with developing
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Speaker 2: what he would call renewables, but specifically renewables he wanted.
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Speaker 2: He in this budget address for the first time, very
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Speaker 2: strongly embraced things like nuclear power, and I hope he
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Speaker 2: commits to that path. So we'll see. That would be
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Speaker 2: very good if he turns his executive commentary into legislative
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Speaker 2: and executive action, and I'm certainly supportive of that. So
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Speaker 2: he also again talked about controlling cell phone addictions and
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Speaker 2: screen addictions and schools, which is something I'm supportive of.
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Speaker 2: I'm a co sponsor of that bill. That bill did
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Speaker 2: not move last year. Although I believe we did get
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Speaker 2: it out of the Senate, it did not pass. So
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Speaker 2: that's another thing I hope to see. And I will
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Speaker 2: say his tone was much better. I mean, I've kind
4:23
Speaker 2: of made fun of his speech a little bit. I
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Speaker 2: did a clip where he said love. I don't know
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Speaker 2: how many times in last year he was talking about
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Speaker 2: Nazis and and and being really inflammatory in his rhetoric.
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Speaker 2: So I think he heard some of those concerns and
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Speaker 2: he swung at the other direction. I don't know how
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Speaker 2: sincere it was, but at least it wasn't full of
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Speaker 2: name calling and drama. So, you know, is that a
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Speaker 2: sign that there's a possibility for bipartisan cooperation. I don't know,
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Speaker 2: but at least the tone is shifting for the better.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you've got to You've got to change
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Speaker 1: a tone if you're gonna have conversation.
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Speaker 2: With people and not feel the place to start.
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Speaker 1: Like like you're you're not open to to us ideas
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Speaker 1: because people have to be open to being right, being wrong,
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Speaker 1: you know, new ideas. You know, maybe there's a better
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Speaker 1: way we can do this that lets everybody win a
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Speaker 1: little bit more, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.
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Speaker 1: It almost feels like it's hard to find a way
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Speaker 1: for everyone to win because not everybody agrees with what
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Speaker 1: winning is right?
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Speaker 2: Right?
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Speaker 1: Oh?
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, And that's you know, We talked last time a
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Speaker 2: little bit about the gerrymannered maps. That really puts a
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Speaker 2: strain in it because there, since the numbers aren't as
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Speaker 2: balanced as what they would be and should be, there's
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Speaker 2: less incentive to work together in the first place. And
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Speaker 2: it gets very easy in that kind of environment, especially
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Speaker 2: given that the governor clearly has some national ambitions in
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Speaker 2: terms of where he does interviews and the kind of
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Speaker 2: speeches he gives. It makes it more easy to tailor
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Speaker 2: what you're thinking and what you're saying to your future ambitions,
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Speaker 2: or to your donors, or to the things that shouldn't
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Speaker 2: be affecting you on the official side of your duties.
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Speaker 2: And I'd love to see that on dounecause I think
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Speaker 2: overnight you would have a more bipartisan, more thoughtful, more
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Speaker 2: Illinois centric and people centric government instead of as much
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Speaker 2: control by special interests and ambition as you see currently.
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Speaker 1: Now. Some people, you know, they that may not be
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Speaker 1: as plugged in politically, They think, you know, state address
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Speaker 1: this thing. You know, communities are size like what do
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Speaker 1: I care about this? What to you? Does does this
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Speaker 1: proposal mean specifically for communities like ours?
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Speaker 2: So the biggest thing is I think from the infrastructure
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Speaker 2: and economic development side, budgets are your blueprints for what
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Speaker 2: the future look like. They're what path you're actually going
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Speaker 2: to spend money on and invest on. And so to me,
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Speaker 2: whether it's a city government or a state budgement or
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Speaker 2: a federal government, it's where you cut through all the
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Speaker 2: rhetoric of what people are talking about when they claim
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Speaker 2: to care about, and what are they actually willing to
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Speaker 2: invest in and spend money on. And that's why I
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Speaker 2: heightened the lack of care to the d D community,
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Speaker 2: which has been a pattern under this governor. Spending still
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Speaker 2: hasn't caught up and developmenttally disabled communities from where he
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Speaker 2: took office, which that's a concern for me. It also
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Speaker 2: shows rural areas continuing to get not as good attention.
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Speaker 2: In this case, he is proposing borrowing bonding about five
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Speaker 2: hundred million dollars about a half a billion, to make
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Speaker 2: up for those cuts that he has done in the past,
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Speaker 2: and so we're shifting actual revenue into borrowing. Right. So
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Speaker 2: the good news in that kind of is that he's
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Speaker 2: going to continue rural projects for one more year. That
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Speaker 2: only buys him one year of those formulas that he cut.
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Speaker 2: The bad news is he's shifted onto something I'm wildly
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Speaker 2: opposed to, which is more debt for my children to
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Speaker 2: inherit more interest for all of us to pay in
7:54
Speaker 2: the meantime, in a less stable budget going forward. And
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Speaker 2: I've mentioned before, Illinois is fiftieth out of fifty for
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Speaker 2: fistal stability. If we want to really seize the potential
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Speaker 2: of the state, and we do have a lot of potential,
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Speaker 2: being fiftieth out of fifty for fiscal stability makes as
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Speaker 2: much sense among states as it does in a business community.
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Speaker 2: If you are fiftieth among fifty among your business peers
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Speaker 2: for fiscal stability, you are probably going to get eaten
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Speaker 2: by the market. And so those are the things we're
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Speaker 2: looking in the budget, say how does this roll down
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Speaker 2: and affect Lee County? How does it roll down in Effectison, Well,
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Speaker 2: there's a lot more bowering that we're going to be
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Speaker 2: straddled with in terms of debt for all of us,
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Speaker 2: which is ready a pain for economic development community. There's
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Speaker 2: going to be less grants going forward because some of
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Speaker 2: that's going to get eaten up by interest. But we
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Speaker 2: do have one year of certainty on infrastructure, So some
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Speaker 2: good and so bad.
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Speaker 1: What is it that, because you make a very good
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Speaker 1: point about the potential when you're fifty for fifty, you've
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Speaker 1: got kind of boundless potential for improvement at that point,
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Speaker 1: you know. And it's unfortunate that Illinois is kind of
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Speaker 1: always the butt of the joke when it comes to
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Speaker 1: people wanting to leave our state because of what it
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Speaker 1: costs compared to everybody else, that.
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Speaker 2: Cost of living. You know, one thing I'll say about
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Speaker 2: the governor's speech, and so far it's been all talk,
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Speaker 2: but he did talk a lot about affordability. That's the
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Speaker 2: buzzword in Springfield this year is they've gotten the message
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Speaker 2: from people that Illinois gotten too expensive to live in.
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Speaker 2: And everybody, both parties, myself included, we're talking about affordability.
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Speaker 2: What I tell you, I'm not seeing that in the legislation.
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Speaker 2: There's a lot of talk about insurance, but everything we're
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Speaker 2: passing is insurance mandates that actually increase the cost of insurance.
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Speaker 2: There's a lot of talk about housing, and yet what
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Speaker 2: we're actually passing is more mandates and then grants hopefully
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Speaker 2: to compensate for some of those. But the problem with
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Speaker 2: a grant, and I don't remember if you and I
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Speaker 2: had talked about this before, but grants are very expensive.
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Speaker 2: For every one million we give out in grants, we
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Speaker 2: have to spend almost another million in paying the peaceeople
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Speaker 2: who collect the taxes, who control and create the programs,
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Speaker 2: who provide oversights to the programs, who do follow up
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Speaker 2: to make sure the grants were spent correctly. Like, all
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Speaker 2: of this stuff isn't as effective as simply unshackling the economy,
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Speaker 2: right And that's where the governor and I just have
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Speaker 2: a core disagreement. He's a true believer in big government
10:18
Speaker 2: and government is the solution, and I'm a true believer
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Speaker 2: that government provides oversight and provides care to those among
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Speaker 2: us who need it the most. And then after that,
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Speaker 2: sometimes the best thing it can do is get the
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Speaker 2: heck out of the way and let people and the
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Speaker 2: business community and the citizenry seize opportunities. And you know,
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Speaker 2: we're just not in Illinois that does that right now,
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Speaker 2: And that's one of the reasons we're fifty th out
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Speaker 2: of fifty because that takes a lot of money to
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Speaker 2: follow that path, and eventually you start running out of
10:43
Speaker 2: other people's money. And in Illinois, people are getting sick
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Speaker 2: of that, and they're leaving more than almost any other state.
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Speaker 2: And I mean you mentioned this. The stat that really
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Speaker 2: is alarming to me is young people leave Illinois more
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Speaker 2: than almost any other demographic. We are very high in
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Speaker 2: people believe in the state, but the only one where
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Speaker 2: we were in number one and last time I checked
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Speaker 2: is people under and up to the age of around
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Speaker 2: eighteen leaving. In other words, where the state where people
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Speaker 2: go off to college or go off to start their
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Speaker 2: careers and never come back the most right. And that
11:16
Speaker 2: is a problem both as a parent but also as
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Speaker 2: somebody who's looking at tax revenue. Those are your people
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Speaker 2: who are going to be paying taxes the longest, at
11:25
Speaker 2: the very start of their citizen duties, and they're taking
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Speaker 2: their time, their talent and all of the taxes they
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Speaker 2: will generate to one of the other states. That's a problem.
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Speaker 1: Now. I know there's no quick fix, but if you
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Speaker 1: could get the governor to do, say, maybe one thing,
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Speaker 1: what do you think would make a marketed difference.
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Speaker 2: I'll give you two. Either one of them would be
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Speaker 2: very powerful. One. The governor has given a lot of
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Speaker 2: talk to and even a little bit of action, So
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Speaker 2: I'll give him some credit, and that's paying down pension debt.
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Speaker 2: He has pushed proposals, and mostly it's liberal Democrats from
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Speaker 2: his own party that are pushing back on him about
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Speaker 2: paying down pension in debt, and he has invested some
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Speaker 2: monies into that and given proposals whereas bonds fall off,
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Speaker 2: we should pay more into pensions. Now, I think that's
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Speaker 2: where his party affiliation and national ambitions will undo him
12:14
Speaker 2: because he's instead of fighting for that as hard as
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Speaker 2: maybe I think he should, he's gonna, as he has
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Speaker 2: done the past, catered to new spending from the legislative branch,
12:25
Speaker 2: which you know, that's where I come in, and I
12:26
Speaker 2: try to fight those battles within the legislative branch and say, look,
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Speaker 2: we need to balance out our budget and we will
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Speaker 2: unshackle more spending for everyone in the future. The other
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Speaker 2: thing I would say is addressing property taxes. They are
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Speaker 2: very cost prohibitive to families. People who rent think they
12:42
Speaker 2: don't pay him. Yes, you do. Property taxes are built
12:44
Speaker 2: into your rent. So whether you own a rent, you
12:46
Speaker 2: are paying our high property taxes. And so there is
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Speaker 2: a retired state representative who was very active in creating
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Speaker 2: pension plans by the name of Batnik, and he's been
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Speaker 2: pushing a proposal that I think makes a lot of sense,
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Speaker 2: and is as pensions become a smaller percentage of our budget,
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Speaker 2: and as we get caught up, because we are on
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Speaker 2: a path over the period of the next maybe fifty
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Speaker 2: years to steadily doing that, to keep those payments as
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Speaker 2: a percentage of the budget and shift them into property
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Speaker 2: tax reliefs through school payments. And so I won't go
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Speaker 2: too deep into the weeds, but basically, our budget is
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Speaker 2: about twenty percent pensions, which is enormously high. Most states
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Speaker 2: are about four percent, and so that is billions and
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Speaker 2: billions and billions a year we're spending on past bad decisions.
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Speaker 2: But we're on track to very slowly start eking those down.
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Speaker 2: And Batneck's position is a long term play which I
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Speaker 2: think is the only honest way to address property tax
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Speaker 2: in Illinois. And that's to say, as we start to
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Speaker 2: get this into a smaller percentage of the budget, keep
13:46
Speaker 2: that percentage because we're used to paying it, and pay
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Speaker 2: it directly into school payments that alleviate property taxes. Right,
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Speaker 2: And now we suddenly we're on a twenty twenty five
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Speaker 2: year path to really get property taxes under control, which
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Speaker 2: may economic development factory incentives just happen automatically because you
14:05
Speaker 2: don't have to incentive for property tax anymore because it's
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Speaker 2: getting built into the system, and it also affecting rent
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Speaker 2: people's homes cost of living. Nobody wants to do anything
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Speaker 2: about property taxes other than talk because it's very hard,
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Speaker 2: and it's a very long term play, and people want
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Speaker 2: to make promises based on their next election, so based
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Speaker 2: on two and four year terms, you can't solve or
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Speaker 2: address property taxes in two or four years. The whole
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Speaker 2: is too big. You have to talk about, you know, five,
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Speaker 2: ten twenty plans as I talk about them in the
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Speaker 2: business community. That's what's the five year plan, what's the
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Speaker 2: ten year plan? And where's this plan going to take
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Speaker 2: you at twenty years? And that's where Batane's idea is
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Speaker 2: really good. Unfortunately, the governor is not paying attention to
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Speaker 2: five to twenty twenty. The governor, like most politicians, is
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Speaker 2: paying attention to what are my next goals for my
14:47
Speaker 2: next election. That's the impression I get anyway, and that
14:52
Speaker 2: makes it very hard to talk about long term five ten,
14:54
Speaker 2: twenty plans. But the thing about a state is it's
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Speaker 2: an infinite timeline. It's not like me where I'm going
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Speaker 2: to die at some point and I got to look
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Speaker 2: at you know, how are my kids going to be
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Speaker 2: set up? Illinois is going to be there forever. If
15:05
Speaker 2: you fix our budget, it is fixed for infinity as
15:08
Speaker 2: long as you keep it. And so we really need
15:11
Speaker 2: to get on a five to ten twenty plan that
15:13
Speaker 2: fixes Illinoi's budgetary path, and then all we have to
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Speaker 2: do is walk in and have immensely more money.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, And like you said, the real miracle is getting
15:23
Speaker 1: every every politician that takes that seat in there to
15:28
Speaker 1: keep their eye on the prize rather than their rights.
15:31
Speaker 2: It takes some self sacrificial leadership for some of them,
15:35
Speaker 2: especially in a Jerrymander state, where you know, some of
15:38
Speaker 2: the forces that push you aren't necessarily the popular election
15:43
Speaker 2: or the general election. It's these other things that affect primaries.
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Speaker 2: But the only path long term to fix ILLINOI is
15:51
Speaker 2: to look at some sort of five ten twenty path
15:53
Speaker 2: that understands I can't fix how big a hole this
15:56
Speaker 2: is in the next five or even ten years, but
15:59
Speaker 2: I can make sure we'll get on the right path
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Speaker 2: in twenty to thirty years from now, we have unshackled
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Speaker 2: the state from its debt.
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Speaker 1: Well, we can only hope, so we have to take
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Speaker 1: a short break, but stay with us as I come
16:12
Speaker 1: back and continue our conversation with State Senator Lee Ariana Jr. Hey, there, so, Valley,
16:17
Speaker 1: you're back with the Waking crew here on FM ninety
16:20
Speaker 1: five one and A fourteen sixty WIXN. It's a thirty
16:23
Speaker 1: four on your Monday morning and we're continuing our talk
16:26
Speaker 1: line discussion with State Senator Lee Ariano Junior. Good, good
16:31
Speaker 1: time to get into our next subject, because it's a
16:34
Speaker 1: lot to unpack and there's you know, it's about a
16:38
Speaker 1: lot of headlines right now involving the future of our
16:40
Speaker 1: own Chicago Bears. Yeah, and whether Illinois could lose them
16:45
Speaker 1: if a stadium deal can't be worked out. Now, I
16:48
Speaker 1: know that sounds insane, So for a little bit of
16:50
Speaker 1: context for listeners. Very quickly, the team's been exploring building
16:53
Speaker 1: a new stadium in Arlington Heights. Disagreements over taxes infrastructure
16:58
Speaker 1: funding have kind of slowed progress. US and some lawmakers
17:01
Speaker 1: in Indiana have even started floating the idea of coercing
17:05
Speaker 1: our bears across state lines. You recently spoke about this
17:11
Speaker 1: issue lead in the broader economic implications for Illinois. What's
17:14
Speaker 1: your take on the stadium negotiations and what's it saying
17:17
Speaker 1: about the state's business climate.
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Speaker 2: Sure, and I'll take those in reverse orders. What it
17:21
Speaker 2: says is about the business climate is what we just
17:23
Speaker 2: kind of finished discussing. You know, their property tax burden
17:27
Speaker 2: at their new project was projected to be two hundred
17:30
Speaker 2: million a year or more. And to put that in perspective,
17:33
Speaker 2: the next highest stadium I could find was nine million
17:38
Speaker 2: a year for SOFAR in California. And so even taking
17:42
Speaker 2: into account that SOFI isn't quite as big a complex
17:45
Speaker 2: as was planned and was done a number of years ago,
17:48
Speaker 2: that's a over twenty times increase. And so the Bears
17:52
Speaker 2: started doing what many businesses in Illinois have done and
17:55
Speaker 2: what many families have done. They're looking across the border
17:58
Speaker 2: at other states and saying, does my business model to
18:01
Speaker 2: my you know, costs make more sense somewhere else? And
18:06
Speaker 2: Indiana legislators quickly realized that this was serious, and they've
18:11
Speaker 2: already passed through their House, through the Senate, and have
18:13
Speaker 2: signed by the governor. That's how fast other states can
18:17
Speaker 2: move legislation supporting a move to Hammond right across the border,
18:22
Speaker 2: and that's only about twenty thirty minutes away from the
18:24
Speaker 2: Bears are now right, so it's not that far. And
18:27
Speaker 2: suddenly you have much lower property taxes, much lower sales taxes,
18:31
Speaker 2: much lower costs of construction. All these things just changed
18:34
Speaker 2: by crossing the border. So let's bring bring your listeners
18:40
Speaker 2: up to speed on where discussions are. So the governor
18:43
Speaker 2: and the Bears and the majority have been working, if
18:48
Speaker 2: you want to call it, working on this problem, for
18:50
Speaker 2: about three years, so Illinois has had a lot of
18:53
Speaker 2: time to take a look at the issue. I don't think,
18:56
Speaker 2: you know, I think the governor sometimes believes his own
18:58
Speaker 2: hype about how great the state is, and he didn't
19:01
Speaker 2: think they were serious about leaving, and that wasn't a
19:04
Speaker 2: serious possibility, and it wasn't until recently when the Bears
19:07
Speaker 2: suddenly said, hey, we're going to take a look at Indiana,
19:09
Speaker 2: and everybody's joke and no, they'd never do that. But
19:12
Speaker 2: leadership in Springfield quickly realized they were serious, and suddenly
19:16
Speaker 2: we got serious about our discussions. And so there's a
19:19
Speaker 2: few bills moving suddenly. One is something that governors tried
19:24
Speaker 2: to do along time time, which is a Megaproject's Bill,
19:27
Speaker 2: and that is what we recently had a hearing on
19:29
Speaker 2: in the House. And what this current form of the
19:31
Speaker 2: mega Project's Bill does, which I pose, is it recognizes
19:36
Speaker 2: that property taxes are too high and prohibitive to economic
19:39
Speaker 2: development into new construction. And it says, if your project
19:43
Speaker 2: is big enough, in this case, the incentive started over
19:46
Speaker 2: one hundred million, you can get property tax cuts up
19:50
Speaker 2: to man up to ninety percent potentially of a project
19:54
Speaker 2: which is massive. And while that seems good on the surface,
19:58
Speaker 2: hey we're lowing property taxes, there's two major problems with it.
20:01
Speaker 2: One is philosophical and the other is actual real world numbers.
20:04
Speaker 2: So the philosophical one is you're giving your biggest companies
20:08
Speaker 2: and entities a break and recognizing, hey, property taxes are
20:11
Speaker 2: too high, so the richest and most influential enough, we're
20:14
Speaker 2: going to cut yours down. But there's no equivalent to say,
20:18
Speaker 2: you or I if we wanted to open a card shop,
20:20
Speaker 2: or somebody wants to open a salon or in my
20:22
Speaker 2: cap a sandwich shop. Property text aren't too high for me,
20:26
Speaker 2: I get them right, and so you'll see a shift
20:29
Speaker 2: of the social burden of taxes more away from the
20:33
Speaker 2: biggest and most powerful entities and more onto regular folks
20:39
Speaker 2: and regular businesses, which I have a fundamental problem with.
20:41
Speaker 2: That's not free market nor in my opinion, depending on
20:44
Speaker 2: how you implement it, is it terribly ethical. The second
20:47
Speaker 2: problem with this bill is the Sheer numbers bill. In
20:50
Speaker 2: this bill, they currently have allowed a cost shift. And
20:54
Speaker 2: so what happens is when you see property taxes, got
20:56
Speaker 2: school districts and other governmental teas to say, hey, why
20:59
Speaker 2: aren't we getting our fair share from them? And so
21:01
Speaker 2: what many property tax cut bills do is they don't
21:05
Speaker 2: actually cut property taxes. That's what they say they do,
21:08
Speaker 2: but that's a lie. What they actually do is shift
21:10
Speaker 2: the burden onto other property tax payers. So, for example,
21:14
Speaker 2: when you get a senior homestead discount, your tax is
21:17
Speaker 2: still going to the levey. They just get paid by
21:18
Speaker 2: somebody else. Or I would potentially qualify, because of some
21:22
Speaker 2: of my injuries for a veteran discount on my property taxes.
21:26
Speaker 2: I haven't yet to claim it. I probably should, my
21:29
Speaker 2: wife and family certainly think I should. I haven't yet
21:32
Speaker 2: because one of the things that irks me is I'm
21:34
Speaker 2: doing all right in life, and if I claim that
21:36
Speaker 2: it shifts my share of property taxes, you know, you know,
21:39
Speaker 2: a few cents to each of my everybody else in
21:42
Speaker 2: the property tax district. But I don't like that. You know,
21:44
Speaker 2: It's made me uncomfortable for years, So I've just never
21:46
Speaker 2: done it. Well, this would be doing that, potentially on
21:49
Speaker 2: one hundred million dollars or more, shifting that, and that
21:53
Speaker 2: is something that I think will get killed out of
21:55
Speaker 2: the current bill. I think both parties have questioned that
21:57
Speaker 2: and attacked that, so hopefully that part at least will
22:00
Speaker 2: be improved. We still haven't addressed infrastructure specifically for the Bears,
22:05
Speaker 2: which is what the Indiana's bill did. That bill doesn't
22:08
Speaker 2: exist in Illinois yet after three years.
22:11
Speaker 1: So I mean, is this just a matter of them
22:16
Speaker 1: just really not wanting to pay their fash share and saying, hey,
22:18
Speaker 1: we're not going to end up with enough profit in
22:21
Speaker 1: our pocket at the end of the day, and so
22:24
Speaker 1: I'll consider going across the state line to kind of
22:26
Speaker 1: hold us.
22:27
Speaker 2: It's hard to answer. It's probably a bit of both. Like, realistically,
22:31
Speaker 2: when all of your competitors in the NFL aren't paying
22:34
Speaker 2: this massive bill. It is a true economic disincentive. It
22:38
Speaker 2: is a true problem in your business model. If you
22:41
Speaker 2: pick a state where your taxes would be let's say
22:44
Speaker 2: we cut them in half over one hundred million, and
22:46
Speaker 2: your next closest competitor is paying ten percent of that.
22:50
Speaker 2: And that is real eye opening for what other businesses
22:52
Speaker 2: in Illinois face who don't get tax breaks. Right is
22:56
Speaker 2: this is one of the things. This is why Illinois
22:58
Speaker 2: has been trailing National growth and GDP every year under
23:02
Speaker 2: Pritzker and many times Beforeum, that's some of these problems
23:05
Speaker 2: he inherited. I'll blame him because he's supposed to be
23:07
Speaker 2: fixing them, but he inherited a lot of the structural
23:09
Speaker 2: problems pension and otherwise that are in Illinois. These this
23:13
Speaker 2: is the same challenge faced by families faced by cities
23:16
Speaker 2: trying to do economic development bring in manufacturing. I knew
23:20
Speaker 2: that firsthand as a mayor faced by small businesses, which
23:24
Speaker 2: I also have first hand experience. There is real pain
23:26
Speaker 2: there for the bears. And as I said in one
23:28
Speaker 2: of my videos, one hundred million bucks, you know, one
23:31
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty million bucks that's a lot of beer,
23:33
Speaker 2: that's a lot of ticket sales. Their business model just
23:35
Speaker 2: works better by traveling twenty minutes away. But to your point,
23:40
Speaker 2: they are a business entity, and they do have some
23:43
Speaker 2: shrewd people on there, and so without a doubt, there's
23:45
Speaker 2: some percentage of it, and I'm not here to say
23:48
Speaker 2: what percentage, where it's just business calculation. Say well, now
23:51
Speaker 2: that we're making this leverage move, we're going to make
23:53
Speaker 2: a max leverage move and do everything we can in
23:56
Speaker 2: our own best interest, which is what businesses should be doing.
23:59
Speaker 2: And that's where it's the duty of your officials representing
24:03
Speaker 2: you to make sure you're fixing the actual delta and
24:06
Speaker 2: not lining somebody's pockets. And unfortunately that's harder to do
24:15
Speaker 2: in Illinois, where the incentives are just so all over
24:18
Speaker 2: the place. And I don't think we're going to get
24:21
Speaker 2: it right. Like I said, I oppose the current form
24:23
Speaker 2: of the bill, of the bill, the legislation, but as
24:27
Speaker 2: a dedicated Bears fan, I'll admit and this isn't going
24:29
Speaker 2: to affect my votes or negotiation, But on a personal level,
24:32
Speaker 2: I don't want us to see us suddenly get good,
24:34
Speaker 2: which we are and have a chance to win a
24:36
Speaker 2: Super Bowl and that Super Bowl gets brought home to Indiana.
24:39
Speaker 2: Like that's yeah, as a sports fan, that would bother
24:43
Speaker 2: me a great deal. I'll still be a Bears fan,
24:45
Speaker 2: but that will hurt a little bit.
24:47
Speaker 1: You know, a little worse than the last time they
24:49
Speaker 1: got to the Super Bowl and didn't clinch it. Right.
24:51
Speaker 2: So, to wrap up where it's at now, that was
24:53
Speaker 2: a House hearing committee. It passed the hearing committee, but
24:56
Speaker 2: it had a lot of questions from both Republicans and Democrats.
24:59
Speaker 2: It did not get called for the full House. Indiana
25:01
Speaker 2: has already passed their bill. The House has been out
25:04
Speaker 2: of session for a few weeks. I'm still down at Springfield.
25:06
Speaker 2: The senatece in session. They will be back the week
25:08
Speaker 2: after the primary election, and then we'll see if they're
25:11
Speaker 2: going to move anything, if they're going to tweak anything.
25:13
Speaker 2: There is a lot of pressure on the governor politically
25:16
Speaker 2: and just socially to get something done, to not be
25:20
Speaker 2: the governor that lost the Bears to Indiana. I don't
25:22
Speaker 2: think he wants to be the governor that loses the
25:24
Speaker 2: Bears to Indiana. So I'm guessing we're going to get
25:28
Speaker 2: something done. But it's hard to say. You're also asking
25:30
Speaker 2: a lot of Chicago legislators to incentivize moving the Bears
25:34
Speaker 2: out of Chicago and into Arlington Heights, and that's a
25:37
Speaker 2: tough ask for them, I should hope so.
25:41
Speaker 1: And you know, speaking of committees, we're getting into a
25:44
Speaker 1: busy stretch in Springfield. Committee deadlines coming up. For listeners
25:48
Speaker 1: who may not follow the legislative process closely, kind of
25:51
Speaker 1: explain what these committee deadlines mean, what happens in the
25:53
Speaker 1: next few weeks that are going to determine whether these
25:56
Speaker 1: bills live or die for the year.
25:58
Speaker 2: So that's a great question. It goes to a little
26:00
Speaker 2: bit and I've ranted about process in Illinois government. It's
26:04
Speaker 2: much smoother at the local level where I came from,
26:06
Speaker 2: much more ethical at the local level where I came from.
26:09
Speaker 2: But we are in a deadline week. That is a
26:11
Speaker 2: deadline mostly for non leadership and Republicans. You have to
26:17
Speaker 2: have a bill out of committee by this coming Friday
26:19
Speaker 2: to get it to move. Now you can ask for extensions,
26:22
Speaker 2: and especially if you're leadership in a super majority, you
26:25
Speaker 2: can suspend the rules and just move stuff whenever you want,
26:27
Speaker 2: which we see, you know at the end of veto
26:30
Speaker 2: session at two am in the morning, we see crazy,
26:33
Speaker 2: huge bills suddenly change language and move. I cannot do
26:36
Speaker 2: that obviously, either ethically or have the power to do
26:39
Speaker 2: it in this General Assembly. So for rank and file
26:43
Speaker 2: members like me, this Friday is a pretty big deal.
26:46
Speaker 2: It's when we're going to see our bills we're trying
26:48
Speaker 2: to block. Are we successfully blocking them? For the most part,
26:51
Speaker 2: our bills were trying to move or co sponsor or
26:53
Speaker 2: a chief sponsor. Did we get him into committee? Did
26:55
Speaker 2: we get him out of committee? So it's a big
26:59
Speaker 2: deadline week for regular legislators, both Democrat and Republican, and
27:04
Speaker 2: basically for almost any Republican. As a year, bill dies
27:08
Speaker 2: if it doesn't get done by this Friday deal and
27:11
Speaker 2: you know it dies for the year. You can reintroduce
27:13
Speaker 2: stuff next year. But it is very tough for rural legislators.
27:18
Speaker 2: I would say ten percent or less of the bills
27:23
Speaker 2: that move come from rural legislators, especially rural Republican legislators.
27:28
Speaker 2: And so this is just a key deadline to figure
27:30
Speaker 2: out what are our priorities. But it also lets us
27:32
Speaker 2: know what we're going to be working on the rest
27:33
Speaker 2: of the year, because this acts to thin out the
27:36
Speaker 2: seven thousand plus bills that are out there and say,
27:39
Speaker 2: all right, what's still alive? And that is where I'm
27:42
Speaker 2: going to focus a lot of my legislative work, and
27:44
Speaker 2: where all of us regular senators will be focused in
27:46
Speaker 2: our legislative work. After this Friday, will know, short of
27:49
Speaker 2: the crazy power moves made towards the end of session,
27:52
Speaker 2: which we can control, will know what is left alive
27:55
Speaker 2: and what we're still fighting or still advocating for.
27:58
Speaker 1: Is there anything you're personally working on your hoping makes it.
28:01
Speaker 2: I'd say my number one that I have not been
28:03
Speaker 2: able to get through is my Child Advocacy Center bill.
28:05
Speaker 2: Senator Morrison has another one that does different things that
28:08
Speaker 2: I will be probably co sponsoring and help them fight
28:09
Speaker 2: for that bill. That's a very good bill. Mine is
28:13
Speaker 2: specifically for a rural transportation for rural child a centers.
28:18
Speaker 2: So children who have been abused either physically or sexually
28:22
Speaker 2: in rural areas often have to trap over an hour
28:25
Speaker 2: to get to the special pediatric kind of assault care
28:30
Speaker 2: that they need, and believe it or not, in a
28:33
Speaker 2: fifty six billion dollar budget, and this blew my mind
28:35
Speaker 2: when I learned it a few years ago. There's no
28:38
Speaker 2: money in the budget for that. It is not a
28:40
Speaker 2: qualified expenditure of the grants either at the federal level
28:43
Speaker 2: or from the state Attorney General or from DCFS or DHS.
28:48
Speaker 2: And so for example, our local CAAC Shining Star here
28:52
Speaker 2: in Dixon and some of the others, they have to
28:54
Speaker 2: do private fundraising through things like United Way to cover
28:57
Speaker 2: some of their costs. And that's before you even get
28:59
Speaker 2: into the staffing shortages we see at cacs to properly
29:02
Speaker 2: do their jobs. So I will be fighting for Senator
29:05
Speaker 2: Morrison's bill. I'm finishing reviewing language. I think it's all
29:08
Speaker 2: good to go, and I'm going to try to get
29:11
Speaker 2: my bill out of committee by then or find out
29:15
Speaker 2: get some way to get an extension, because to me,
29:17
Speaker 2: that's a bill that even urban legislators, once they see
29:20
Speaker 2: the problem, they're going to care. They might not care
29:22
Speaker 2: right now because they don't understand the problem because they're
29:24
Speaker 2: closer and including some of my sacs, my Peoria Child
29:27
Speaker 2: Advocacy Center, they're right next to pure OSF and some
29:32
Speaker 2: of the medical care centers that have that access. But
29:35
Speaker 2: if you're in Henry County or Whiteside, County or Lee County,
29:38
Speaker 2: which I represent. You're talking about a lot more travel
29:40
Speaker 2: to get to Peory or to get to Rockford. So
29:43
Speaker 2: that's probably my number one priority until Friday, just because
29:48
Speaker 2: I think it has the best chance to move in
29:49
Speaker 2: a bipartisan manner, and it would it would go to
29:52
Speaker 2: those among us who need that help the most.
29:55
Speaker 1: Looking forward, what will your focus be?
29:57
Speaker 2: My biggest long term focus is always finance because that
30:01
Speaker 2: is the key to unlocking everything else. Do I want
30:04
Speaker 2: money for property tax relief, for child afficc centers, for
30:07
Speaker 2: the development to the disabled community, Do I want, you know,
30:11
Speaker 2: money for economic development? All of that is shackled by
30:14
Speaker 2: the state's debt right now, the ten billion plus and
30:17
Speaker 2: debt payments we play in every budget and long term
30:21
Speaker 2: For the fiscal health of the state and for the
30:24
Speaker 2: ability of me to keep any of my five kids
30:25
Speaker 2: in Illinois and have them be prosperous here, fixing the
30:30
Speaker 2: finances number one. Once we actually have the money to spend,
30:33
Speaker 2: we can argue, as liberals moderates conservatives, does it go
30:36
Speaker 2: into property tax relief, Does it go you know into
30:38
Speaker 2: more SOFA source, mental health, early education. We can have
30:41
Speaker 2: that fight when the money exists right now. It is
30:43
Speaker 2: debt payments, so it does not exist, and there's nothing
30:46
Speaker 2: we can do short of these endless series of tax
30:49
Speaker 2: increases that are hurting the economy even more and lowering
30:52
Speaker 2: our tax revenue on the back end. So that's always
30:55
Speaker 2: my number one goal, because any other goal you have
30:57
Speaker 2: that includes the financial need need you to fix that goal.
31:01
Speaker 2: And that's true whether you're liberal or conservative or a moderate,
31:04
Speaker 2: or whether you don't even care about finances, which frankly
31:06
Speaker 2: some of them don't, it still affects you.
31:10
Speaker 1: We'll start caring about finances those of you who don't.
31:14
Speaker 1: As someone here who doesn't have the power, I need
31:17
Speaker 1: you worrying for me, right right right, Well, Senator, thank
31:20
Speaker 1: you so much for sharing on it. This apologize. We're
31:23
Speaker 1: out of time so we can fix the state's problems
31:26
Speaker 1: any further here this morning, but we'll trust you to
31:29
Speaker 1: go do that good work for us.
31:31
Speaker 2: I will continue the fight.
31:33
Speaker 1: Everybody, stay centering our Senator le Arion A Junior Styer,
31:36
Speaker 1: thank you very much.
31:37
Speaker 2: Thank you