Politics & Government

Legislators Discuss Taxes, Health Care and Jobs

Robert Dold, Susan Garrett and Karen May guide business forum in Highland Park.

(R-IL),  (D-Lake Forest) and (D-Highland Park) discussed keeping businesses in Illinois last Friday during a panel discussion at the .

The three legislators, along with Andre Ashmore from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, took questions submitted in advance by attendees about how the federal health care reforms and the  will affect small businesses in Illinois.

"The state is on the brink of insolvency in large part because of the Great Recession," May said when asked about the tax increases. "If we hadn't done something, we [the state] would have been junk bond status like the next day."

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Garrett agreed that action needed to be taken, though she regretted how the legislation was carried out.

"I think the government should have articulated much better what our course of action was going to be," she said. "We should share in some of the belt tightening, and that has to be articulated up front before we ask the taxpayers to bear the cost."

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May said the state government would be making considerable cuts in addition to raising taxes, and that the cuts "wouldn't be pretty."

"There will be a billion dollars in cuts," she said. "They're probably going to be to education, to teen programs."

When the subject switched back to taxes, Garrett said she was opposed to the increase in the corporate tax rate and feared it could cause businesses to flee the state.

"This is a big mistake, because if we can't generate jobs and maintain the major businesses that we have here, we don't have people then to pay taxes, which is our greatest revenue source," she said.

Dold agreed that government officials needed to focus more on creating jobs and keeping them in the state.

"Right now, we see business after business looking to pick up and leave," he said. "We want to reverse that trend."

The hourlong session began with a discussion on health care, with Dold expressing concern about how to make sure businesses insure their employees.

"The thing that frightens me more than anything is we see businesses looking to pay the penalty as opposed to providing insurance," said the freshman congressman.

Toward the end of the presentation, Gary Kaufman, a Highland Park physician, told the legislators that it took his office four years to find a new physician. Because of obstacles such as medical malpractice, he said, the country is at risk of an impending shortage of doctors.

"The last statistic I saw said that by 2020 we'll have a 59,000 doctor shortfall in this country in primary care," Kaufman said. "Nobody wants to go into it."

Dold agreed that steps needed to be taken to avert this potential crisis.

"There is no question that there is going to be a shortage of doctors if we don't make some changes to attract the best and the brightest to the profession," he said.

The event, called was presented by NorthShore University HealthSystem and hosted by the . It was moderated by the chamber of commerce's executive director, Ginny Glasner.

"We are so fortunate that we have wonderful accessibility to our legislators," she said near the forum's conclusion.

Also in attendance on Friday were mayoral candidates and , as well as city council candidates and . Park Board Vice President was there as well as District 113 Superintendent .

Rotering said she came to the event to learn about the "legislative perspective on the challenges to business development in our state" and for "the opportunity to talk to small business owners and supporters in an effort to work with them and encourage them in our city."

Olian said she wanted to find out if there were any impediments for businesses that wanted to come to Highland Park.

"We need to do all we can to bring them here and to keep them here," she said.


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