With only seven Naperville city council meetings remaining (121 days) until the Municipal election, council and mayoral candidates are beginning to position themselves, not only on the ballot, but also in their differing views of Naperville’s legislative action plan.
During last Tuesday night’s council meeting, it came down to needs vs wants. Mayoral candidate Doug Krause focusing on needs, while mayoral candidate Steve Chirico focused not only on needs but also on ‘wants’. One of those ‘wants’ is the possible Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert venue northwest of Naperville and Warrenville roads on land owned by Alcatel/Lucent.
Watch and listen as Naperville councilman Steve Chirico outlines his vision of a legislative action plan for Naperville:
This was followed by councilman Doug Krause’s priority list of needs for Naperville’s legislative plan:
So which mayoral candidate is right, and which mayoral candidate is more right than the other on this topic? Krause says let’s focus on less with a better chance of getting some funding, while Chirico says let’s focus on more with a better chance of getting more funding. I’m a numbers guy, and the chance to get more, sounds better than the chance to get less. And just as it’s the State Assembly’s responsibility to take care of the State, it’s the responsibility of the Naperville city council to take care of the city and its residents, hence Chirico trumps Krause on this issue.
Just because the City asks for funding doesn’t mean they will get it, however if they don’t ask for it, they are guaranteed not to get it. Even a one in a million chance is better than no chance.
The State of Illinois is in financial trouble, there is no debating that. Hence common sense would say, let’s ask for nothing. But common sense never seems to enter the equation when it comes to politics and money. It’s been said that the State of Illinois slogan should be, “He who has little should have less, and that which he has shall be taken away”. If the City of Naperville (residents) have more, they have a better chance of keeping some of it.
When will these clowns learn there is no free lunches. Somebody (US) will always have to pay. These matching grants (like Smart Meters) always involve funding with bonds which is increased debt which we can ill afford. They are in the process of increasing our taxes as we speak and they want to incur more debt. Nonsense like alternative fuels when we have abundant fossil fuels and of all things a symphony orchestra implies the advocates are listening to pipe dreams and sniffing glue. Neither one deserves serious consideration as our new Mayor. We need someone who is a fiscal conservative and respects our citizens wants and needs and not their own.
These clowns are raising our taxes 5.9%. Then they are going to borrow even more money under the unlimited taxing authority they have, putting our families on the hook for even more debt. Whoops, if that isn’t enough, they are going to bankrupt Illinois for even more cash handouts. How many Naperville families received 5.9% increases in household income? Haven’t most of us cut back on our spending and credit card debt? Some of theses council member are unable to manage their own private finances, chronically paying their electric bills late. Yet they are inflicting potential financial misery on all of us with their profligate spending. Stop the spending, pay off the debt and start living within your means. Naperville does not need anymore fancy parks, statues, museums or private ventures that require taxpayer bail-ins. The electric company continues to hemorrhage cash, after browsing $13.1M from our Water Utility, a 6% rate increase, followed by a 7% increase this spring. The next downturn is going to be a nightmare. Council hasn’t learned anything from 2008.
Chirizos sounds like greedy kid looking at the new toy catalog at chritmas. We need an adult like Krause to focus on what the actual needs are and take care of that. Kids never want underwear or clothes for Christmas but on a limited budget sometimes that’s what they have to get. The “adults” have already spent more than they have, and are going to fall short in the coming year to pay for projects the kids wanted in previous years.