Dr. Jay Kinzler wants to stop the bleeding – this time in the metaphorical sense.
A surgeon and medical staff president at Elmhurst Hospital, Kinzler recently announced his decision to run for state representative in the 46th District.
“As a doctor, I took an oath to ‘first, do no harm,’ but that is not what we see coming out of Springfield," Kinzler posted on his Facebook page. "All we see are policies that hurt our families: higher taxes, bloated bureaucracy, and cuts to services for the truly needy."
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Kinzler, who is also a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, has served two four-year terms on the Glen Ellyn Park District Board, including two years as president. He left the board earlier this year.
“When I started there, they did not have balanced budgets," Kinzler said. "They were basically somewhat inefficient. So, in the first few months, we started balancing the budget."
Kinzler said the Glen Ellyn Park Board reduced property taxes by 7 percent and expects to reduce them by 25 percent next year.
“We had people with company cars," he said. "We got rid of all those. We had people with cellphones that the park district was paying for and didn’t need them. So (by) doing a bunch of little things we were able to get to a point where we now have approximately a $1 million surplus ... we are able to use for capital improvement projects.”
Kinzler said he hopes to do the same for the state.
"I think by just reducing the state income tax, that will help businesses maybe come to Illinois or stay in Illinois if they are planning on leaving," he said. "When you have more businesses, you have more jobs, more revenue. In the long run, you are going to actually get more tax revenue just because you have more people being productive and working more.”
Kinzler ran against U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) in the 2016 Republican primary but lost by a wide margin.
“Over the years politicians and what we call the establishment politicians have kind of driven the state into the ground to the point where a lot of people are leaving the state,” Kinzler said. “I think what really broke the camel’s back was when they rose our income tax by 66 percent, yet they didn’t put any curbs in their spending along with it.”
Rep. Deb Conroy (D-Villa Park) is the current representative for the 46th District.
Kinzler will face Roger Orozco in the March 20 primary.
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