Joe's Priorities

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What role, if any, should the state play in addressing rising healthcare costs and ensuring access to care for residents?

Illinois needs to play a substantial role in addressing healthcare costs and ensuring to care for all residents, especially now that the federal government has done cutbacks in this area.
Just recently, Governor Pritzker approved and is now implementing the dispersal of more than 1.5 billion for medical debt forgiveness. There is also the ongoing need to enforce and expand on House Bill 1697, which in basic terms, makes it much harder for pharmacy benefit managers to take large amounts of money out of the prescription drug system.
I support a health care system which provides ‘Medicare for All’ … a fair plan for everyone from top government officials to the poorest of immigrants who are going through the legalization process.

What are your budget priorities for Illinois?

For more than 6 months I have been talking about two of my major priorities for Illinois, and especially District 45:
1) I recognized that everything from housing, to fuel (energy costs in general), to groceries, automobiles, etc… has become much less affordable in this past year. We have to find a way to bring more jobs back to Illinois — to somehow reverse a big part of what has happened in the years since NAFTA. A big part of the solution to getting more money to programs that can alleviate high costs, and to promote industry/job growth is going to have to be more taxes, with strict oversight on how those dollars are used.
2) Our lower to middle class cannot afford more taxes… Fair and Progressive Taxes is the best option.

How should Illinois ensure all students have access to quality public education?

As I said in my response to the Illinois Education Association just a few weeks ago, Illinois must continue to work at improving quality curriculums and the hiring of quality teachers. An important part of obtaining quality teachers is to always offer fair pay with good benefits. Currently, our teacher’s pensions are still grossly underfunded, which again, leads to decisions on the best methods to bring more money into that part of the budget. (Fair and Progressive Taxes would be a great place to start.)
Also, we have to stop thinking that “specialized scholarships” are going to do anything to help with public education, –quite frankly, it would be a hindrance, especially if it leads to private vouchers.
It should not be on the ballot!

How should Illinois balance energy reliability, cost, and environmental considerations when addressing evolving energy needs?

A timely question, as I just finished a three part interview process with the Sierra Club — an organization that cares very deeply about this subject and how the decisions ultimately affect our ‘Mother Earth’. From my studies thus far, I can say there are Illinois legislators looking closely at which sources of energy produce the least amount of carbon footprint, with affordable sustainability. I am very much in favor of solar energy, with wind, then modernized nuclear energy sources currently being my 2nd and 3rd favorites. I also learned that L.P. and Natural Gas sources are not as sustainable as we once thought they were.
Everyone needs to do a better job of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
Especially with plastics, pushed by oil companies.