Jonathan Wallace today announced his candidacy for State Representative in the 72nd House District. Wallace, a Republican, is challenging the incumbent Democrat Rep. Pat Verschoore.
“I’m running for state house because I believe it is time to bring fresh ideas and new leadership to Springfield,” Wallace said. “Both Illinois and the 72nd District are facing a terrible economic crisis. We’re facing a 9.9% unemployment rate and it costs our state more to borrow money than Iraq. Our biggest exports are our college graduates.
As a small-business owner, I understand the challenges employees and workers are facing. We need real solutions to these challenges. Every week, more businesses in Illinois pick up and leave for neighboring states with more business-friendly climates. In the past 20 years, here in western Illinois we’ve lost several manufacturers and the jobs that go with them. It’s time for a change, and change needs to start right here in the 72nd District.”
Wallace highlighted tax reform, streamlining Illinois bureaucracy, and bringing state government into the digital age as key issues.
“My opponent has spent the last eight years in the state legislature, and in that time, one thing has become clear: he has never met a tax increase he didn’t like,” Wallace said. “He thinks the way to solve Illinois’ budget crisis is to raise taxes on working families who are already feeling the pinch. Since Pat Verschoore and the Chicago Democrats passed a 67% income tax increase earlier this year, we’ve lost over 69,000 jobs in Illinois and counting. Picture our neighbors, our friends and coworkers who live in Moline, East Moline, and Rock Island. Now imagine in one year, we are all unemployed.”
Rep. Verschoore has consistently supported increasing either the state income tax, sales tax, or both. In January 2011, Rep. Verschoore voted for Governor Pat Quinn’s 66% tax increase on Illinois working families.
“With due respect to Mr. Verschoore, I don’t agree that the income tax hike or the Amazon tax was ‘the right thing to do’,” Wallace said. “I think we can find ways to balance our state budget without resorting to tax increases. Waste and corruption are endemic throughout Illinois government. We need a solution that goes through the budget with a fine-toothed comb to identify areas of waste and corruption. Until we do that, I think raising taxes on hard-working Illinois families who are overtaxed and underemployed is completely irresponsible. We deserve better.”
“We need to bring our fiscal house in order. One way we can do this is to find ways of streamlining the state bureaucracy,” Wallace continued. “Illinois government makes accomplishing the simplest tasks difficult. We need to find ways to upgrade our state government infrastructure to make it possible to do more using digital technology. Until we do that, and until we fix our state’s broken tax code, I believe we will continue to see businesses leave and unemployment grow.”
Wallace also highlighted education and ethics reform as key issues.
