Saturday, March 29, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Get ready to grab your wallets...
The half-percent sales tax increase (0.25% courtesy of the transit bailout, 0.25% courtesy of Schillerstrom and the three state senators from DuPage County) takes effect on April 1, 2008.
That's $94 million a year.
Not an April Fool's joke.
/s/ Robert "Bob" Brandt
Candidate for DuPage County Board - District 3
That's $94 million a year.
Not an April Fool's joke.
/s/ Robert "Bob" Brandt
Candidate for DuPage County Board - District 3
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Real ideas and solutions, not bumper sticker slogans and negative political rhetoric...
As the Democratic nominee for DuPage County Board Member in District 3, I have proposed (1) reducing County Board Member salaries by 50% (currently $50,079 a year for 2 meetings a month) and eliminating the $3,000 / $1,000 bonus for committee chairman / vice-chairman (eliminated by the county board on May 27, 2008) ; (2) eliminating the retirement plan for County Board Members (which pays 80% of their salary after 20 years of service); (3) saving millions of dollars every year by consolidating county departments and reducing the size of county government as suggested by the independent non-partisan Civic Federation and the county's own Efficiency Committee; (4) increasing governmental transparency by creating a web-based database with all county personnel and county vendor information; (5) instituting an ethics ordinance to prohibit companies that give campaign contributions to County Board Members from getting county contracts ("pay to play"); and (6) opposing any attempt to bring "home rule" power to DuPage County.
Don't forget that the current DuPage County Board threatened to cut over 200 law enforcement / public safety jobs unless voters approved their $40 million sales tax referendum. Chairman Schillerstrom went behind our backs and convinced Springfield (with the help of state senators from DuPage County) to raise our sales tax by $47 million, which made the county's referendum unnecessary. But now, the County Board says they really only needed $10 million (partially because over 100 of those law enforcement employees quit and their positions were eliminated) and they plan on spending the remaining millions on other projects. The old “bait and switch” trick followed up by the old "tax and spend" trick both executed perfectly by the current County Board.
Instead of offering fresh ideas and real solutions, Republican candidates for County Board seem to be content to repeat the same old bumper sticker slogans, outdated stereotypes, and negative political rhetoric in the hope that it distracts voters from their failed leadership, increased spending, and yearly tax increases (I find the notion that electing a handful of Democrats to the 18-member County Board would somehow turn DuPage County into Cook County particularly laughable). But they can’t fool voters forever. And the clock is ticking.
/s/ Robert "Bob" Brandt
Candidate for DuPage County Board - District 3
Don't forget that the current DuPage County Board threatened to cut over 200 law enforcement / public safety jobs unless voters approved their $40 million sales tax referendum. Chairman Schillerstrom went behind our backs and convinced Springfield (with the help of state senators from DuPage County) to raise our sales tax by $47 million, which made the county's referendum unnecessary. But now, the County Board says they really only needed $10 million (partially because over 100 of those law enforcement employees quit and their positions were eliminated) and they plan on spending the remaining millions on other projects. The old “bait and switch” trick followed up by the old "tax and spend" trick both executed perfectly by the current County Board.
Instead of offering fresh ideas and real solutions, Republican candidates for County Board seem to be content to repeat the same old bumper sticker slogans, outdated stereotypes, and negative political rhetoric in the hope that it distracts voters from their failed leadership, increased spending, and yearly tax increases (I find the notion that electing a handful of Democrats to the 18-member County Board would somehow turn DuPage County into Cook County particularly laughable). But they can’t fool voters forever. And the clock is ticking.
/s/ Robert "Bob" Brandt
Candidate for DuPage County Board - District 3
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
"...dysfunctional one-party control..."
A comment from Illinois State Senator Christine Radogno (R-Lemont):
The entire article is posted here.
/s/ Robert "Bob" Brandt
Candidate for DuPage County Board - District 3
“We’re going to raise people’s awareness of how dysfunctional one-party control is,” she said. "That (elected official) in your district may be a nice person, but they are enabling this mess to go on.”She was talking about Springfield (although 37 Democratic Senators, 22 Republican Senators and 67 Democratic Representatives, 51 Republican Representatives is hardly one-party rule), but she might as well have been talking about DuPage County (16 Republican County Board Members - 0 Democratic County Board Members).
The entire article is posted here.
/s/ Robert "Bob" Brandt
Candidate for DuPage County Board - District 3
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