Politics & Government

Election 2012: Sandy Cole

Republican incumbent Sandy Cole is running against Democrat Sam Yingling in the race for the 62nd State Representative District.

Name: Sandy Cole

Position sought: 62nd District State Representative

Resides in: Grayslake

 

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Campaign contact information

Website: www.sandycole.net

Email: sandycole@comcast.net

Phone: (847) 548-0877

Age: 58

Family: Husband Steve and three children. Kevin and Kelsey are graduates of Grayslake Central High School and Emily is a graduate of Carmel High School.

Education:

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Rockford College, Rockford-Bachelor of Science, 1976
Wheeling High School, Wheeling-Illinois State  Scholar

Occupation: Full-time State Representative

Political Party: Republican Party

Official name of your campaign committee: "Citizens for Sandy Cole"

Previous Elected or Appointed Offices:

-Director: Lake County Soil & Water Conservation District (elected) 1994-1996
-Lake County Board Commissioner: December 1996-2006
-Lake County Forest Preserve Commissioner:  December 1996-2006
-SWALCO (Solid Waste Agency Lake County) Executive Board Member   1998-2006
-Past-member: National Assoc. of Counties (NACO) Public Lands Committee  and Finance and Intergovernmental Steering Committee
Past-member: Upper Des Plaines River Ecosystem Partnership Council
-Past-member: Ryerson Woods Facility Planning Advisory Committee
-Chairman: County Board Finance & Administrative Committee 1998-2002
-Past-member of Lake County Board Committees: Public Works and Transportation, Law and Judicial, Taxation/Elections and Records, Intergovernmental Affairs, Minority Affairs Task Force
-Vice-Chairman: Lake County Board 2002-2004
-Chairman: Public Building Commission 2002-2005
-Treasurer: Lake County Forest Preserve 1998-2004

Is there any additional experience you believe qualifies you for the position? If your race is contested, how does this set you apart from other candidates?

During my service as State Representative, I have initiated a “Family Focus” legislative agenda, a comprehensive list of legislative priorities aimed at improving the quality of life for families and communities in Lake County and throughout Illinois.

I am an advocate in the General Assembly on women’s health issues, transportation, open space, fiscal responsibility, children’s safety, and senior issues. I will continue to sponsor a number of informative community events such as veterans forums, women and senior health/wellness fairs, autism awareness forums, family and teen Internet safety forums, back-to-school events and reading/literacy programs.

What would your priorities be if elected to this office?

Key Issue 1: Jobs and small family-owned business retention and creation.
Key Issue 2: Property tax relief and reform.
Key Issue 3: Reduce government spending-spree and consolidate taxing districts.

What are the most important issues facing your district and what would you do as a legislator to address them?

Jobs. Family owned businesses need a break.

I did not support the Sears, CME deal. The over $325 million deal was loaded with perks aimed at pleasing a select group of legislators for votes. In retrospect, it was a good position to have taken Sears has layed-off workers,

Motorola has sold out to Google, has layed-off workers and moved to Chicago for another “tax deal”. What will Navistar do?

Small family-owned business is the life-blood of Illinois business. It is the life-blood of the national economy. I have proposed HB5239, which creates the Illinois Economic Development Corporation. The bill sets out the board of directors of the corporation and sets forth the membership of the board. The board shall develop and implement economic programs to provide business support and expertise and financial assistance to companies that are investing and creating jobs in Illinois and to support new business start-ups and business expansion and growth in Illinois.

Get our Illinois residents back to work by not chasing businesses out of the state with over-regulation, excessive taxes and the perception that the big-bad businesses’ are not paying their “share” for entitlement programs.

Illinois’ unfunded pension liability is $83 billion. The state’s inability to address the issue recently led Moody’s to downgrade Illinois’ credit rating. What should be done to address the state’s rising pension obligations?

Pension cost-shift to all schools except the Chicago school district is unfair and will lead to massive property tax increases to fund the local school districts’ share--referendum fever as was seen in the 1990’s in the Central Lake County area.

Pension reform legislation must include a guarantee the state will pay their pension obligation payment and automatic/compounding Cost of Living Increases (COLA) must be reformed. Contributions desperately need to have some increase and the formula reformed to address drastic fluctuations in the investment markets and downturns in the economy.

Actuarial studies need to be done on a five year basis and a 8.5 percent rate of return is unrealistic and will lead to tragic underfunding. If we are to have an Illinois Social Security plan (teachers do not receive federal social security benefits per state law) that is sustainable, then adjustments and contributions need to be analyzed regularly, not just when we are in a recession. 

Illinois’ state government has a terrible reputation in terms of corruption. What would you do to change the culture of state government that has seen recent governors from both political parties convicted of felonies?

More needs to be done regarding campaign finance reform. SB1466, passed in October of 2009, made some good efforts to rein in campaign disclosure and political contribution abuse, but the bill did not limit contributions by political leaders and political parties.

The bill actually made legislative leaders and parties more powerful over their members, influencing the ability to win a race as well as ability for an elected official to vote independently of their financial benefactors/special interest (the party or leader). I will vote for this change--whenever speaker Madigan allows such a bill to reach the House floor.

I believe in term limits for legislative leaders. I am an independent voter and take the position of my district on votes rather than a stereotype party position. I have worked across the aisle on budget matters, the environment, education, quality of life issues, senior and veteran programs. I work for quality education programs and for education funding opportunities. I believe in independent living for seniors and the disabled.

Education in Illinois is funded primarily through local property taxes. What changes, if any, would you make to that funding system?

The State is broke. More state taxpayer dollars are spent on Medicaid (public aid) than on education. Next year the Medicaid liability will increase by over $1billion, and more state taxpayer dollars will be spent on Medicaid and pension liability payments than on Education.

Under current state leadership, the only stability to school funding is local funding.

Illinois recently passed a significant increase in its income tax, yet the state continues to run a deficit. What specifically should be done to reduce the deficit?

Without a doubt, we should take advantage of the struggling economy as an opportunity to review every program. Initiate zero-based budgeting. End programs that don’t work. Eliminate duplicate services and offices (i.e. comptroller).

Not a single tax-increase proposal should be debated or considered until this is done. “Pay-to-play” and the corruption culture of Illinois leadership adds a huge price to the average taxpayer's services. Government should be leaner, leaving the spending to the taxpayers for their struggling family budgets!

Spending cuts? You bet. Audit the Link card program for misuse and abuse (start with seeing why an incarcerated individual’s Link card is still being used on the "outside").

Combine the elected treasurer and comptroller (savings in Springfield and Chicago office expenses).

Audit governor appointed boards and commissions. Reduce or eliminate compensation for the members and reduce the number of boards and board members to save on incidentals and transportation costs. Start with Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.

Four members making over $93,000 a year. The chair is making over $104,000. One is married to a retiring state senator; one is an ex-Springfield lobbyist; one is an ex-legislative staffer; one is an ex-gubernatorial aide; and one is an ex-state representative.

Perform a forensic audit on all state spending. Yes, it will cost money to do so, but will save millions in the long run. Sell the state planes that ferry legislators back and forth to Springfield.

Eliminate the General Assembly COLA. Eliminate the Judicial COLA. Eliminate the General Assembly Pension. Audit all end-of-session legislator special district giveaways-for-budget-vote programs and make those audits available on the Auditor General Web site for public transparency purposes.

Why would you do a better job representing the district than your opponent?

This is a negative campaign question.


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