Dupage Policy Journal

GOP state House candidate Jay Kinzler has strict standards when it comes to implementing the kind of budget changes he believes are needed in Illinois.

“We need a good budget, not a fast budget,” Kinzler told the DuPage Policy Journal, referring to the $38.5 billion spending plan recently passed by the General Assembly, which Gov. Bruce Rauner has already signed off on. “Our current leadership in Illinois failed us again.”

Kinzler, a Glen Ellyn Republican who is running against Rep. Deb Conroy (D-Villa Park) in the 46th House District, said he worries that the new budget is too much like all the old ones for it to have much of a positive impact.

“The budget spends between $600 million and $1.5 billion more than we take in,” he said. “The Illinois Policy Institute reports that the budget that was passed is $1.5 billion out of balance. Our legislators who voted for this budget spent the entire recent 32 percent tax hike and more. There is no evidence of any spending reform. If we don’t control spending to a reasonable level, we will continue to have deficit spending, which is unsustainable.”

For the most part, Kinzler points the finger at legislators like Conroy and powerful House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago).

“My opponent and other Madigan cronies continue to raise taxes as their solution to the problem,” he said. “This will not work. The higher you raise taxes, the more people move out of Illinois, which reduces our tax base. Common sense tells us this scheme won’t work. You cannot tax our state into prosperity.”

If he could, Kinzler said he would go as far as rescinding last year’s permanent tax hike in favor of a system that seeks to be more fiscally responsible.

“I would repeal the tax hike and control spending,” he said. “My opponent sends out mail pieces stating [that] she is for lower taxes, yet she voted for the recent 32 percent tax increase. Her and her colleagues, [who are] controlled by Madigan, have done nothing in the way of reasonable spending controls. They are just going along with their heads in the sand with no plan on how [to] fix our state’s financial problems.”

Kinzler said what the state needs is a plan that focuses on Medicaid reform, pension reform and reducing the overall cost of government.

“A start would be to pass realistic budgets that are honest and without budgetary gimmicks,” he said. “This budget was passed approximately five hours after it was released. It was over 1,000 pages. This is a tactic used by governments of all sizes to overwhelm those who may be in opposition to it because they don’t have enough time to go through it. It also allows those that are pushing a bad budget to pull the wool over the eyes of the public and the press.”