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Stop the Migration
The population of Illinois has decreased 3 years running. No other state in the Midwest has had such losses. Illinois lost 80,000 tax paying millennial voters between 2011 and 2015. In 2016 we had the highest population loss in the union. We need policies in place that address this major issue facing the state.
Welcome Small Business
Illinois recently was given a rating of "F" by the Thumbtack Small Business Friendliness Survey. We need to embrace small business, to make it easy to start a business and hire.
Alex has proposed a tax levy for new small businesses in manufacturing and technology to help foster economic growth in Illinois
Grow Manufacturing Jobs
Illinois has lost 12,000 manufacturing jobs just this year. Chicago was once the manufacturing capital of the world, but not so much anymore. Indiana has been stealing our jobs for the past decade by providing a better business environment. We need:
- Spending reforms to control the overall tax burden manufacturers face
- A property-tax freeze to protect industrial properties from confiscatory tax rates
- Sales-tax reform to eliminate sales-tax “pyramiding” by removing the sales tax on manufacturing and other business inputs
Provide a Tax Freeze
Budgetary issues have forced local governments to increase their tax rates, due to funding not coming from the state for education among other things. These new rates have forced many out of the state. The state of Illinois has the second highest property taxes in the country. The statewide average effective tax rate is 2.67%, nearly double the national average. Some Illinois homeowners are paying more in property taxes than they do on their mortgages.
We need to place a levy on any tax increases, while the government works on ways to be able to decrease this tax burden. Increasing taxes without a proper way to reform programs is irresponsible and only hurts the middle class.
Against the Trump Agenda
Healthcare
The Republicans have a majority in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House which allows them to pass absurd and irresponsible legislation which does devastating harm to working families.
But we have a majority of the American people who understand that it is enormously dangerous and reckless for Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act without any replacement at hand. Our job is to bring that majority together and tell Republicans that we will not allow 30 million people to be thrown off of health care, Medicaid to be decimated, Medicare to be privatized and prescription drug costs to go up for seniors - all while the top 2 percent receive $346 billion in tax breaks.
Climate Change
2016 was once again the hottest year on record, yet Donald Trump has nominated a number of people for positions in his cabinet who do not accept the science that humans are responsible for climate change. We need an administration that will take action to combat climate change, not deny that it exists and is caused by human activity.
Women's Rights
We will not go back to the days when women had to risk their lives to end a pregnancy. The decision to have an abortion must remain one for a woman, not the government. And we will not go backward to a time before Planned Parenthood, when millions of women had no access to birth control or cancer screenings. We must go forward to ensure full reproductive justice for all women.
Caring for Our Veterans
While people can have legitimate differences about when our country should go to war, there should never be a debate whether we fulfill the promises made to the men and women who served this country in the military.
We have a moral obligation to provide the best quality care to those who have put their lives on the line to defend us. VA facilities need to provide proper and prompt care to our veterans.
Employment: We spend hundreds of millions to train our service members to do highly skilled jobs, but too many still struggle to transition into civilian jobs because they don't have the right certifications and licenses.
If you can drive a military truck in combat, with hazardous cargo, at night, through a sandstorm, then you can drive a commercial truck on an interstate. If you can dock or anchor a 10,000 ton warship under extreme stress, you can do the same thing for a small commercial ship.
We need to make is easier for these individuals to gain access to well paying jobs once they come back into the civilian world.
Healthcare: We need to improve the healthcare of all service members. Providing mental health services, and improving the actual healthcare of these individuals in paramount. For too long the care that they have had to endure has been sub-par, which is unacceptable considering how much they have sacrificed for this county![4]
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