...and I'm running for County Board in District 7.
I was invited to post here several months ago, and now that the campaign is getting fully underway I'm providing an introductory post and some other information.
I've been a resident of East Central Illinois most of my life. I've been married for 13 years and have three young children. I'm a fundraiser for the Newman Foundation at the University of Illinois and involved in several local organizations as a volunteer.
The seat in District 7 that I am running for is empty since Nancy Greenwalt (D) decided not to run again. I have two opponents -- Carrie Melin (D) and Kostas Yfantis (G). Although I take nothing for granted, I firmly believe I can win this race and contribute to the two-seat "must win" for the County Board.
I want to be part of the County Board for several reasons:
- I believe the County Board plays a key role in the quality of life in Champaign County;
- Recent actions by the current Board have demonstrated their inability to properly manage our tax dollars and keep our interests first and formost;
- I want to work with the other members of the Board to improve our County and restore fiscal integrity to the business of the Board.
(You can learn more about why I wanted to run, my background, etc. from my website.)
After attending last night's County Board meeting, I am convinced more than ever that the people of Champaign County deserve better representation at that level. The Nursing Home debacle is indeed the "greatest public works disaster in the history of Champaign County" as one person stated. But the Nursing Home is just one issue. Other key areas include making qualified MTD Board appointments, keeping the business of the County open and honest, pursing a viable and reasonable Land Use Agreement, and providing a balanced county budget.
I'll be posting my position statements on these issues soon and blogging from my site as well. (Wordpress is being installed today hopefully by my outstanding web designer, Dave Glenn.)
I'm not going to be a regular poster on IP (although I am an avid reader), but I hope you'll continue to watch my website and blogging area. Most of all, I truly hope that you will offer me your feedback, suggestions, comments, etc. I have many ideas but I want to know what you -- my friends and neighbors of District 7, and all residents of Champaign County -- believe are the important issues facing us in the coming months.
Mark,
I was looking at the map on your Web site and noticed that you encompass a decent portion of the University area where a decent portion of students live.
How will you work to get students to vote for you and why should students care about what happens on the county board?
Gordy, I really like this setup. I hope you'll also invite other non-GOP candidates as well.
Mark,
Good luck this fall and you have a very nice and promising website. I like seeing new blood coming into the government of this area. Maybe some of these coasters (of all parties) will get their act together.
Kiyoshi brings up a good point.
I don't think the students are aware of the impact they could have on local races in this county. Considering most of them are here 8-9 months a year for 4 or more years, they shouldn't ignore the local county races. And that goes for students of any party affiliation.
Yoshi and j-dub,
Thanks for the input -- GREAT question! I was ovewhelmed at work yesterday and couldn't reply. I'm walking my district this morning but will draft a full response over the weekend and post on my blog (and link from this post as well.)
mr
"Gordy, I really like this setup."
I had nothing to do with it.
Driving down Springfield this morning, saw Mark going door-to-door. I like the determination he's got.
Has anybody even heard anything about what or who Carrie Melin is?
Mark,
As one of your current County Board representatives, welcome to the politics of District 7!
Since you or one of your campaign workers dropped off one of your constituent surveys at my address today, I would like to take this opportunity to respond to it. (Please note that I am paraphrasing your questions.)
1. Important County Board Issues:
Reduce High Property Taxes: Very Important to Somewhat Important. Unfortunately, the County Board only directly controls 10.3% of our property taxes. Another 6.0% goes to the MTD, Forest Preserve, and the CUPH District. Of course, the largest portions of property taxes go to the School District (50.7) and City of Champaign (17.4). Note: Data are from my 2005 property tax bill which I am assuming to be representative of the district. Certainly the board can and should work to reduce taxes, our portion is not very big compared to the entities above.
Promoting Smart Development: Somewhat Important. Of course this depends on your definition of Smart Development and on where the development is taking place.
Financial Management of the County NH: Very Important-more so than ever.
2. Support of expanding current satellite jail using public safety sales tax. No.
3. Has CU MTD Board been responsive to ....concerns of all people in the community.
Yes to the District 7 area.
No to other areas.
4. Do you support creating express bus service from areas west of Neil St. into the campus area?
Well, this would have been a good question about 5 or more years ago. There is an express service called Green Express (see http://www.cumtd.com/routeschedules/ByRoute.aspx?routeID=12&routegroupID=1) that goes through District 7 and serves the areas west of the disrict. It has been around from a number of years. You can travel from campus to Cherry Hills on it. Maybe express services could be expanded to serve more of District 7 or other districts.
5. The County Nursing (Home) is running a deficit.... I support the following solutions:
Increase Property taxes: no
Reduce operating costs: yes
Sell Nursing Home: only if county wide referendum voted to do so
Increase fees on residents: maybe
Improvements in County government: Harder working County Board Members (including myself).
Just for the record. I endorse Weibel's comments. Ralph Langenheim
In answer to Kiyoshi's post above: “How will you work to get students to vote for you and why should students care about what happens on the county board?”ÂÂ
I have addressed the issue over at my blog within my campaign site: www.markrandall.us
(*Viewers will soon be able to post comments there - please check back later this week.)
Mark Randall
I think there was some obfuscation on the tax rates cited by Weibel above. Here are the actual tax rates from the website:
CCFPD .0839
CUPHD .1126
CUMTD .2677
When I add these together is totals .4642 not .6
When you compare these district's rates to the total they are less than 1/2% and a very small part of the total tax rate:
Unit 4 3.9271
Champaign Park District .6782
City of Champaign 1.312
Of course, some people never miss an opportunity to exaggerate to try and make the transit district look bad. They are always people who do not ride the buses.
"I think there was some obfuscation on the tax rates cited by Weibel above. Here are the actual tax rates from the website:"
Participant: apples and oranges. Carl wasn't talking about the actual rates per assessed value (as you are). He was talking about the relative shares of the entire property tax burden in his district, which is a more meaningful number for the discussion at hand. I haven't checked anyone's math, but it appears that you are probably both correct, and that the three districts he referred to are, in fact, six percent of his total bill.
The total bill varies based on which taxing districts you are part of so his figures may only apply to his area. Any discussion of the relative shares is very specific to the location and can be misleading. On my voter registration card there are 10 taxing districts of which I could find 8 of the tax rates.
In any case, the three districts chosen for the 6% figure are the three lowest taxing rates listed for my list of taxing bodies. Reducing or eliminating those will have a small impact on the overall tax burden. Clearly the major taxing bodies are the schools, the cities and the parks with the schools being the 800 pound gorillas. Any reformulation of the tax rates to reduce the property tax burden will require a change in the funding formula for the schools. Picking on the tiny tax rates of the forest preserve, public health district and transit district is just demagoguery.
"The total bill varies based on which taxing districts you are part of so his figures may only apply to his area."
Yes, we know that. Carl made that clear at the outset. This thread is about district 7.
"Any discussion of the relative shares is very specific to the location and can be misleading."
Actually, discussion of relative shares in that particular county board district is very relevant, since that district is the whole point of this thread. Relative shares is the only way to discuss it that makes sense. Quoting raw tax rates is just abstract numbers out of context for most people. What part of the total bill each contributes puts it into proper perspective.
"In any case, the three districts chosen for the 6% figure are the three lowest taxing rates listed for my list of taxing bodies. Reducing or eliminating those will have a small impact on the overall tax burden."
Again, yes, we know that, so there is no argument there. Carl pointed this out before you did, and he never called for them to be lowered.
"Clearly the major taxing bodies are the schools, the cities and the parks with the schools being the 800 pound gorillas. Any reformulation of the tax rates to reduce the property tax burden will require a change in the funding formula for the schools."
Once more, yes, we know that, there is no argument. Carl pointed out before you did that the schools and city were the biggest chunk.
"Picking on the tiny tax rates of the forest preserve, public health district and transit district is just demagoguery."
You're picking a fight that doesn't exist, at least in this thread. Carl didn't single those out to attack them, and you probably owe him an apology for the demagoguery charge.
He also (correctly) noted that the three taxing districts you're defending had a collective share less than that of county government, which is the part that was actually in question, since it's the part that the county board controls.
No one in this thread so far has complained about the tax rate of MTD, PHD, or the forest preserve. Someone may yet, but it will be because you drew attention to them, rather than Carl.