Pamela Althoff

Pamela Althoff
Illinois State Senate District 32
Incumbent
In office
2003 - Present
Term ends
January 11, 2017
Years in position	10
Party	Republican
Leadership
Minority Caucus Chair
Compensation
Base salary	$67,836/year
Per diem	$111/day
Elections and appointments
Last election	November 6, 2012
First elected	November 2002
Next election	November 8, 2016
Term limits	N/A
Prior offices
Mayor, McHenry City
2001 – 2003
Education
Bachelor's	Illinois State University (1975)
Master's	Northeastern Illinois University (1978)
Personal
Birthday	November 22, 1953
Religion	Christian
Websites
Office website
Personal website

Sen. Althoff answers questions from students

Pamela Althoff is a Republican member of the Illinois State Senate. Althoff has served in the Illinois Senate since 2003. Althoff was re-elected in November of 2006 with her term expiring in 2010. Before being a Senator, Althoff was the Mayor of the City of McHenry, a Northwest Chicago suburb from 2001 to 2003. Also, Althoff was the City Clerk for the City of McHenry from 1994 to 2001.

Althoff graduated from Illinois State with her Bachelor's degree and her Master's degree from Northeast Illinois.

Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Althoff served on the following committees:

2011-2012

In the 2011-2012 legislative session, Althoff served on these committees:

• Subcommittee on Amendments (Local Government)
• Subcommittee on Health Care Licensing
• Subcommittee on Special Issues (Human Services)

2009-2010

In the 2009-2010 legislative session, Althoff served on these committees:

Issues

Presidential preference

2012

See also: Endorsements by state officials of presidential candidates in the 2012 election

Pamela Althoff endorsed Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election.

Political positions

Debt negotiations

Althoff is one of the members of a bipartisan group organized by the National Conference of Legislatures called the Task Force on Federal Deficit Reduction (TFFDR). Consisting of 23 state lawmakers from 17 states, the group went to Capitol Hill on September 21, 2011 to urge the Congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to cut the nation's debt but not impose severe budget cuts on the states.

TFFDR urged the Committee to consider new revenue as a possibility, instead of just focusing on budget cuts as House Speaker John Boehner has proposed. The group specifically proposed passage of the "Main Street Fairness Act," which would allow states to tax online retailers.

Legislation

In 2009, Althoff co-sponsored Senate Bill 1555. SB 1555 would alter the way that taxes are imposed in Special Service Areas throughout the state.

Current state law allows municipalities to create special service areas, or SSAs. SSAs can generate funding to build infrastructure projects that are intended to benefit a geographical area that is less than borders of a municipality. This can include sewer projects, street repairs and so on.

Property owners located within an SSAs pay more on their property taxes for a set period (usually 20 years) until bonds issued to pay for the project are repaid. Residents can stop a town or county from imposing an SSA by collecting signatures on a petition from 51% of the area's property owners of record and 51% of the registered voters within the SSA.

Althoff's legislation would instead require the municipality that wants to impose the tax to hold a vote before they impose the tax, rather than putting the burden of collecting signatures on those who oppose the tax. According to co-sponsor Jack D. Franks, SB 1555 "would require the people who are trying to raise taxes on the citizens to prove that 51 percent of the people want their taxes raised."

Elections

2012

See also: Illinois State Senate elections, 2012

Althoff won re-election in the 2012 election for Illinois State Senate District 32. Althoff was unopposed in the Republican primary on March 20 and was unopposed in the general election on November 6, 2012.

Illinois State Senate, District 32, General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Pamela Althoff Incumbent	100%	74,346
Total Votes				74,346

2008

On November 4, 2008, Republican Pamela Althoff won re-election to the Illinois State Senate District 32 receiving 93,855 votes.

Illinois State Senate, District 32 (2008)
Candidates		Votes
Pamela Althoff (R)		93,855

Campaign donors

2012

Campaign donor information is not yet available for this year.

2008

In 2008, Althoff collected $170,928 in donations.

Listed below are those that contributed most to her campaign.

Donor	Amount
Comcast	$7,000
Chicago Automobile Trade Association	$5,000
Palmetto Properties Inc.	$4,300
Illinois State Medical Society	$4,000
Altria	$3,500
Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois	$3,250
Lexington Square Inc.	$3,000
Valley Medical Inn	$3,000
Construction & General Laborers District Council of Chicago & Vicinity	$2,700
Kraft Foods	$2,250
Walgreens	$2,000
Central Illinois Public Service Co.	$2,000
Illinois Health Care Association	$2,000
Vincent & Patricia Foglia	$2,000
Thomas Dorl	$2,000
Illinois Merchants Association	$2,000
Friends of Harper	$2,000
Illinois Construction Industry CMTE	$2,000
Citizens for Frank Watson	$2,000
Illinois Realtors Association	$1,800

Scorecards

Illinois Opportunity Project

See also: Illinois Opportunity Project's Legislative Vote Card

The Illinois Opportunity Project, "an independent research and public policy enterprise that promotes legislative solutions in advance of free markets and free minds," annually releases its Legislative Vote Card, grading all members in both chambers of the Illinois General Assembly on the basis of their support of "pro-growth economic policies that increase personal freedom and reign in expansive government."

2012

Althoff received a score of 85.71 out of 100 in 2012 for a grade of B according to the IOP’s grading scale. Her score was tied for the 17th highest among all 59 members of the Illinois State Senate included in the Vote Card.

Recent news

This section displays the most recent stories in a google news search for the term Pamela + Althoff + Illinois + Senate

All stories may not be relevant to this page due to the nature of the search engine.

Pamela Althoff News Feed

• Illinois Senate passes moratorium on charter schools - Northwest Herald
• Illinois Senate approves medical marijuana bill - Northwest Herald
• Illinois Senate debating medical marijuana - The State Journal-Register
• Oberweis on medical marijuana: It's about helping people in pain - Chicago Daily Herald
• Bipartisan vote by Illinois Senate calls on Congress to overturn 'Citizens United' - The Rock River Times
• Lawmaker injured in House-Senate softball game may need surgery - The State Journal-Register
• Senate passes union-backed pension bill despite GOP opposition - Chicago Sun-Times
• Our View: Improved disclosure proposal a positive - Northwest Herald
• Our View: IHSA makes right call on football practice - Northwest Herald
• Our View: Putting Illinois in the fast lane - Northwest Herald

District 32

Bond represents Illinois Senate District 32. District 32 includes McHenry County which is considered part of the Chicagoland region.

Personal

Althoff resides in McHenry, Illinois.

External links

Suggest a link

• Pamela Althoff's personal website
• Biography, bills and committees at the Illinois General Assembly

• Summary, biography, voting record, and interest group ratings at Project Vote Smart
• Campaign contributions at Follow The Money
• Profile at Facebook
• Profile at Twitter
• Profile at LinkedIn
• Profile at Wikipedia

References

Political offices
Preceded by '	Illinois Senate District 32 2003–present	Succeeded by NA