To inform voters and to help the baiduhai Editorial Board make endorsements, the board posed a series of questions to the candidates running for governor. See their answers below. See how Gov. J.B. Pritzker answered the questionnaire here.
Candidate name: Darren Bailey
Running for: Governor
Residence: Xenia
Current occupation: State Senator
Previous political experience (elective and appointed positions): State Representative, North Clay Board of Education member
Education: Graduate of North Clay High School in Louisville; Agricultural Production A.A.S. degree from Lake Land College
Spouse’s occupation: No answer provided
Sources of outside income: No answer provided
Questions with candidate’s answers
State budget figures put Illinois’ unfunded pension liabilities at roughly $130 billion earlier this year. That’s a massive deficit that wreaks havoc on the state’s long-term financial stability, and discourages employers from bringing jobs to Illinois. What should Illinois do to fix this problem?
We must solve this problem and lower taxes. Working families are struggling and in need of help. I filed to amend the pension protection clause as a way to spark a conversation with workers, not union bosses and the political elites who use state workers as bargaining chips in every election. We must bring workers and those focused on solving problems, saving pensions long-term, and being respectful of promises made to workers and taxpayers to the table. I support no longer kicking the can down the road and ensuring lawmakers make required payments. We must also move to 401(k) style plans for all new hires and have honest conversations with state workers to gain reasonable adjustments to Cost of Living Allocation and more participation in health insurance. I would also look into supporting more buyout plans that current workers support to help alleviate future debt.
Do you support establishing a pension reform referendum that would ask voters to amend the Illinois constitution to allow a reduction of future benefit growth to levels that the state can afford, while keeping current earned benefits untouched? Please explain why or why not.
The only way to get the kind of serious, long-term pension reforms we need is for voters to approve a Constitutional Amendment. Raising taxes is the only solution JB Pritzker has to offer but raising taxes will do nothing to reduce costs. Besides, Illinois has some of the highest state and local taxes in the country. Illinois residents cannot afford even more taxes. We need real reform, and we need it now.
The Michael Madigan indictment highlighted the need for genuine ethics reform in Springfield that restores Illinois citizens’ confidence in government, and prevents the abuses of power that have become all too common in the state capital, and have persisted for decades. What is your vision for meaningful, lasting ethics reform in state governance?
There have been around 1,500 public officials in Illinois convicted of corruption from 1970 to 2010.
The need for reform has been apparent long before I came to the Legislature. We don’t need any more blue-ribbon commissions. We don’t need another study.
What we need is action. Let’s give the Legislative Inspector General the authority to launch investigations. Let’s allow the LIG to look beyond the scope of legislative responsibilities and investigate all possible criminal behavior. Let’s ban legislators from lobbying for 3 years after leaving office.
I also support legislation banning legislators from serving in other elected offices while also serving in the Illinois General Assembly. The last Legislative Inspector General resigned because the so-called ethics reforms passed into law failed to do anything substantial to change the culture of corruption. It is time to get serious about anti-corruption reforms.
Do you support making possible a referendum that would ask voters to approve a state constitutional amendment overhauling redistricting in Illinois by creating an independent citizens commission to oversee the decennial remap process? Please explain your answer.
I have consistently supported FAIR and INDEPENDENT maps. We need to take the politics out of the remap process. Corrupt, career politicians continue to block the FAIR map even though it would pass overwhelmingly if voters ever had an opportunity to vote on it. The popularity of the FAIR map idea is why in 2018 then candidate JB Pritzker pledged to only sign a legislative map that was drawn by an independent commission. Of course, Pritzker failed to keep his promise and signed a partisan map anyway. I will use the platform the office of Governor affords to finally get the FAIR map ballot initiative in front of voters.
Illinois has the second highest real estate property taxes in the country. Please lay out two ways that the state can provide a measure of relief to Illinois homeowners and citizens, and please be specific with your answer.
Illinois has nearly 7,000 units of local government. One way to lower taxes would be to reduce the layers of government in Illinois. Part of the reason our property taxes are so high is because of the number of units of local government we have. Property taxes fund most of these local governments.
Other ways to lower property tax costs would be to eliminate unfunded mandates and identify other ways to reduce costs in schools. Enhancing partnerships between high schools and community colleges could be a way to lower costs. We could also look at ways to increasing education opportunities while at the same time lowering costs by allowing teachers to travel to different schools to teach elective classes instead of each individual district making full-time hires for these elective classes. We need to think creatively and look for ways to reduce the cost of education so that we can lower property taxes in Illinois.
Runaway inflation continues to be a major source of concern for Illinois families. What specific measures should be undertaken at the state government level to help Illinois citizens and families cope with rising inflation that is causing undue economic hardship?
The pathetic temporary tax breaks contained in the FY 2023 budget is a joke. What we need is permanent, impactful tax relief which can only happen if we reduce spending.
So, my first priority would be to reduce spending. Then I would look at ways to lower taxes such as ending the sales tax on motor fuel and repealing the 2019 law that doubled the gas tax.
What should Illinois do to improve job growth across the state?
One of the first things we can do to bring jobs back is not force local businesses to close. A lot of the problems businesses are experiencing are a direct result of the Pritzker lockdowns.
A Bailey Administration is going to prioritize the unemployment insurance fund, regulatory reforms to make it easier to start and grow a business, and enacting workers’ compensation reform and lowering taxes. We need to make Illinois a destination state for businesses and that can only happen when we improve the business climate in our state.
Census 2020 figures showed that Illinois was just one of three states in the country to lose population over the previous decade. That cost the state a congressional seat. All but 15 of Illinois’ 102 counties lost population, according to the census. What should Illinois do to turn this trend around? (Editor’s note: This question was posed to candidates before new census figures were released showing Illinois’ population change was actually a modest gain.)
This is an issue that many of us in the Legislature have been highlighting. With the exception of the baiduhai and a few other media outlets – there has not been a lot of exposure to the number of people leaving Illinois. High taxes are a major reason for the mass exodus.
The first thing we have to do is acknowledge we have a problem and make solving it a priority. The only way we can solve this problem is to reduce spending so that we can lower taxes and not only keep the residents we have but attract new people to our state. With our central geographic location, we should be a leader in job growth and job creation, but we continue to lose out because our taxes are too high, and we have a very hostile business environment. But these bad policies will be reversed with a Bailey Administration.
In March, Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith was cited an eighth time on a contempt of court order for failing to appropriately place a teen who was in the agency’s care into the proper setting. What should be done to address the agency’s shortage of proper shelter for children in DCFS care? What other reforms do you believe are needed at DCFS?
Marc Smith has been hit with an unprecedented eighth contempt of court order for failing to put a 14-year-old girl into a residential facility. The girl has been moved 21 times since last September. He also has failed to move kids as young as 11 from psychiatric hospitals who are ready to leave.
What is going on here is just unacceptable and kids are suffering as a direct result of Marc Smith’s complete incompetence. He is defying court orders and doing tremendous damage to kids in the department’s care. His decisions are hurting kids and we should not tolerate this kind of cruelty. It does not matter whether these decisions stem from abject incompetence or something more sinister because the result is the same – children are being harmed. We need answers and we need them now. As governor, I would not tolerate this kind of incompetence. Marc Smith would have been fired long ago under a Darren Bailey Administration.
Rising violent crime continues to be Chicago’s top priority. Numbers of homicides, shootings and carjackings are all unacceptably high. What should Springfield do to help reverse the rise in violent crime in Chicago and elsewhere in the metro region and state?
You don’t hear JB Pritzker talk much about the increase in violent crime in Chicago. He will go out of his way to highlight legislators who dare to challenge his COVID-19 mandates, but he is strangely silent on the number of shootings, hijackings, and other violent crime in Chicago.
I will not be silent. I will continue to talk about the problem and force city officials to work with me to find a solution. I support more police on the streets and ensuring law enforcement has the tools they need to keep families safe. My preference will be for the city to work willingly with me but if they won’t, I will use the power of the line-item veto to force them to the table.
Give us your assessment of the overhaul of the state’s criminal justice system that was passed by the General Assembly in January 2021. Will it help or hinder efforts to rein in crime? In your answer, please indicate whether you support or oppose the provision within that legislation that abolishes cash bail in 2023, and explain the rationale for your viewpoint on that provision.
The bill was forced through at the last minute despite good faith efforts by opponents of the bill to try to work out a true compromise. This legislation is an affront to the men and women who risk their lives to keep our communities safe. The bill is only going to serve to put criminals back on the street. It is terrible public policy, and I am working to repeal it. We are already seeing a rise in crime and more attacks against law enforcement. We need a Governor who will defend law enforcement and demand law and order.
Give us the best example of when you displayed independence from your party or staked out an unpopular position.
When I first ran for office in 2018, I took on a 13-year incumbent who had voted to raise taxes. I was told by a lot of people not to run but I did it anyway and I beat him. There are a lot of people in the leadership of the Republican party who did not want me to run for Governor. They even went as far as to recruit a candidate to try to stop me from being our party’s nominee. I am the true outsider in this race because I continue to stand up for conservative principles. I have always stood up against the political elites within the Republican Party and I will continue to do so.
Sum up why should voters nominate you and not your opponent(s).
I have a proven track record of standing up for limited government. I stood up to Pritzker’s unilateral mandates when no one else would. I won my first election for State Representative by opposing the tax hikes my opponent at the time supported. Throughout my tenure in the Illinois Legislature, I have never supported a tax increase, and I have consistently stood up to reform Springfield and promote conservative principles.
I have advocated for spending reform, lower taxes, and tough anti-corruption measures. These positions are often mocked by political insiders of both political parties. The question I have is, what has decades of far-left policies done for Illinois?
Illinois has the worst credit rating of all 50 states. We have some of the highest combined state and local taxes and billions and billions of dollars in pension debt. Illinois is ranked the third worst state for doing business while states with competent leaders such as the state of Florida are leading the way as the top destination states for jobs and opportunities.
The legacy of the status quo is debt, high taxes and out of control spending. I am the only candidate in this race in both political parties who has been willing to talk about the real problems facing our state and to advocate for workable solutions.