Clint is running for the Democratic nomination for Illinois’ Comptroller, because we need a taxpayers’ watchdog to fix our state’s wrecked and corrupt financial situation. Clint’s view of the Comptroller as the taxpayers’ watchdog has a number of elements, which most Illinoisans believe are long overdue.
Pension Reform. Unify the Illinois pension system. One person, one pension, soundly funded. We must end the pension abuses by which insiders can qualify for multiple pensions, that provide lifetime annual payments of far more than they made while actually working. Pensions must be based on a reasonable percentage of the person’s total compensation, eliminating the abuse of short-term and late stage appointments, increasing that person’s annual payouts by tens of thousands of dollars, for life. And COLAs-Cost of Living Adjustments need to be limited to actual changes in the cost of living, not the automatic 3% we currently raise them each year.
Tax Reform. We will end the system that has been structured to benefit those who feed at the State trough, leaving taxpayers as merely the suckers in the game. First, No tax increases until and except as part of spending and pension reform. The idea of raising state income tax rates is unacceptable while we exempt all retirement distributions that are taxed federally from State income tax. Illinois, joined by only Alabama and Mississippi, exempts all retirement income from State tax. Not just public pensions. All retirement distributions—pension, profit-sharing 401k’s—the whole kibosh. No one has represented retirees and workers’ interests more than Clint has. However, retirees have no greater claim to exempt their income altogether, over a working family attempting to provide for their family on the same income. At current estimates this constitutes $1billion tax revenue lost last year, climbing to $1.6 billion lost annually, as more boomers retire.
System Efficiencies. We need one unified accounting system. Currently, the State of Illinois operates on 22 different accounting systems, resulting in not only additional cost to periodically report on the State’s overall financial position, but also creates unacceptable risk of material inaccuracies. Adopting a single accounting system will save us money and give us a more accurate understanding of what our financial situation actually and accurately is.
Eliminating Illinois’ Culture of Corruption. Clint will appoint a deputy/assistant comptroller, a forensic accountant, whose job will be to identify contracts and transactions with a high risk of irregularity, for follow up by our office, the attorney general, and the states attorneys. For too long, our approach has been to tolerate corruption until the federal prosecutors prosecute the most abusive of our wrongdoers. Taking initiative to keep our house clean, we can send a message that Illinois no longer tolerates a culture of corruption.
In order to change Illinois for the future, we need your help to get our message out. In the Democratic primary, the organizations that run our state send voters to the polls, with instructions to keep the status quo. In these hard times for Illinois – this is exactly what we don’t need.
