North Cook News

As Benjamin Salzberg talks to voters during his campaign for state Senate in District 29, he has noticed a common trend: the people of Illinois are upset. 

They are upset about the situation in Springfield, about high taxes and about a future filled with higher taxes.

Many are none too pleased about the stopgap budget potentially raising taxes once again. Salzberg has insinuated that this budget is just delaying the inevitable.

Salzberg urges Illinois to stop its leaking bucket

“I have been talking to many Illinois constituents, and they’re very upset about some of the new tax bill,” Salzberg recently told North Cook News. “I know that the stopgap budget increased the taxes for Chicago. And, thinking about all this, it’s really interesting that it’s really just kicking the can down the road for the next sixth months.”

Salzberg doesn’t wholly condemn the stopgap budget : he commends it for funding education and vital human services and its ability to unite party lines. But he asserts that it is not enough.

“It’s great that the stopgap focuses supporting education and allowing other areas, such as construction and key segments of Illinois, to function -- very much needed,” Salzberg said. “I’m excited that an agreement was negotiated between both Democrats and Republicans. But it does kick the can down the road.”

The stopgap budget is neither a permanent nor effective resolution to the state’s budget problem, Salzberg believes.

“This stopgap is not a solution,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we are spending much more money than we are taking in, as far as the government is concerned. A lot more reforms have to be looked at.”

Salzberg believes that he can help Illinois in examining the reforms. Due to his experience working at PTD Partners, a business consultation company focusing on assisting corporations in finding solutions to their problems, Salzberg asserts that he can re-engineer the state.

His first objective is to get a good auditor. The state’s current one, General Auditor Frank Mautino, has too many strikes against him, according to Salzberg.

“I study the pinpoints in which to focus and find where the problem and problematic areas are,” he said. “The first thing … is that you have to have a good auditor. You have to make sure the state in what you are doing is working effectively and functionally. I know that our general auditor, Frank Mautino, is currently under federal investigation for his own current situation for spending in his campaign.”

Mautino is facing a resolution from Republican lawmakers seeking to remove him from office due to alleged irregularities in his spending during his campaign. Salzberg has stated that Illinois can’t recover unless it has an auditor worthy of trust.

“Looking at that … how can you know what is going on in the state of Illinois, have reform and look at the different areas of focus if you (don’t) have people audit these programs properly, correctly and effectively?” he said. “People you can trust. If you can’t trust the people that are supposed to represent the constituents, then how can you have a functional government?”

Salzberg said that his experience doing Six Sigma Lean helps him understand what it takes to solve problems and examine what programs are working effectively and functionally.

“Instead of looking at programs that don’t really work very well, we should reform those programs,” he said. “For the programs that work well, we should support them. We need to re-engineer the programs that are not effective.”

The idea is that Illinois needs a long-term solution instead of a stopgap budget. Illinois needs people who know what they are doing.

“I believe that the last balanced budget was in 2001,” Salzberg said. “We can’t have that. We have to have a balanced budget. In order to do that, we have to have people taking accountability for what they are doing. The fact is that, right now in the state, the senate and house are not taking accountability.”

Salzberg went on to say that the capital has been hiring too many politicians who aren’t transparent and are under federal investigation.

“Illinois needs people that are true blue in what they are doing and people who can represent the people of Illinois properly, can problem solve properly and get us back on track,” he said.

Salzberg asserts that reducing spending will help the state get back on track. Many hold the opinion that the state has a spending problem and not a revenue problem.

“We have to stop the leak from happening and then we have to see where we are,” Salzberg said. “Then we have to reassess. We can’t pour water into a bucket that is leaking out and then continue to pour water into that bucket without first stopping those leaks. We have to reform the areas of problem that are wasting the money first before we can then look at raising taxes.”

He said that residents are already heavily burdened with some of the highest taxes in the nation. This, compounded with several large companies leaving the state, has increased unemployment and migration away from the state.

“We had one of the biggest oil corporations leave Chicago last Friday,” Salzberg said. “That was a big loss. That was about 600 jobs. What are we going to do about that? We need businesses to stay in Illinois. We need to increase our tax base, not decrease it. We have to provide those incentives and be a more business-friendly state.”

Salzberg insists that the state needs to refocus on families and values; he believes in Illinois and its potential. Moreover, he said that each vote matters -- but voters have to vote for change instead of the status quo.

“Focus on what it means to live in Illinois, what it means to have a family here in Illinois,” Salzberg said. “I know that this is a great state, and we’ll definitely be able to be a great state again -- especially in these trying times. But we have to vote properly and get the word out that we need people in the state senate that understand process and reform: that really understand where our leaks and waste are.”