Ramiro Juarez: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: StreamwoodWebsite: www.juarezforillinois.com/Office sought: 44th District RepresentativeAge: Candidate did not respond.Family: Married, two childrenOccupation: Elementary School TeacherEducation: B.A. , History M.A. , Teaching K-8, Bilingual, ELL, and Middle SchoolCivic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: Candidate did not respond.Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Jobs and the EconomyIllinois needs to create an economic environment in which businesses can prosper. We need to encourage an industrial and manufacturing industry while expanding technologies, renewable energy, tourism and trade. Illinois needs to do whatever possible to keep and create new jobs. We need to increase opportunities and generate a vigorous workforce, by maintain a competitive advantage over other states and attract quality jobs.Today, businesses are closing down and jobs are being lost. Illinois needs to help businesses start creating jobs instead of having them leave to another state. Creating jobs should take precedence in the Illinois legislature. By following common sense principles and reducing taxes we can bring back jobs to our communities and keep the ones we already have. Springfield must do everything possible to keep and bring jobs to Illinois. That should be one of our priorities during this tough economic time.Key Issue 2 Budget, Spending and TaxesThe state of Illinois needs to maintain a balanced budget, control its spending and keep taxes low. We need to make sure we follow a responsible and conservative fiscal approach to state spending in order to avoid further shortfalls of money. Nonetheless, while balancing our budget and cutting spending we must still continue to make important investments in the state's development, education, health care and job creation. There are some budget items that could be considered for privatization, elimination or restructuring, if that means keeping the state on solid financial ground. Furthermore, transparency in the budget and spending is needed in order to have a meaningful discussion about the state budget. Illinois simply needs to begin to be more efficient and learn to do more with less. Increasing taxes is not an option. People are already feeling the negative impact of our struggling economy and increasing taxes is not the answer. Illinois needs to restructure our tax code to attract job providers, and startup businesses. We further need to begin to alleviate some of the burden from our homeowners, especially during these difficult times.Key Issue 3 EducationAs a teacher, I have seen first-hand how the 'one-size-fits-all' approach to education does not work. We need to allow local schools, parents and teachers determine how our children are educated, not bureaucrats. What works for one school district, does not necessarily work for another. We need to allow local schools and parents to lead the way. We need to focus on getting students to reach higher levels of math, science, reading and writing. To do this, we need to look at schools and districts individually rather than as a whole in the state.It is my belief that all children in the state of Illinois are entitled to the best education possible. Unfortunately, not all of our education dollars are being efficiently spent in the classroom as intended. Too much of the education budget goes into administrative costs that do little for our students. Public education is vital to the success and quality of life in Illinois. Education and its funding must be a priority.Education is the key ingredient to improving our quality of life. Children from any end of the economic spectrum have a chance if they are inspired and are prepared for the future. I have never given up on a child, now will I ever. Their future is our future. We need to fund our schools property, strengthen the school accountability system and measure success in a logical manner. Furthermore, we need to look past high school and into college and push students to attain skills that will allow them to reach higher goals, and reward schools for the number of students that achieve this postsecondary readiness.Additionally, the state of Illinois needs to make significant investments in our public institutions of higher education. Investing in and creating sophisticated and competitive research institutions will improve Illinois' academic standing as well as open many doors and opportunities to our students.Questions Answers What can you do specifically to help the economy in your district? What is your view of the tax breaks granted to companies like Motorola Mobility, Navistar and Sears? For incumbents, how did you vote on the Sears plan in this fall's veto session?I realize that most candidates and elected officials view a position like that of state representative as an opportunity to help the economy of one's own district. While it is extremely important to keep that mind, I also believe it has become a downfall of Illinois policy. To better our local economy, we must consider the state and the people as a whole. Many policy's if properly implemented would help not only the local economy but rather our entire state economy. Unfortunately this has not been the case in the very recent past.Nevertheless, as the State Representative for the 44th district, I would take a primary role in helping the local economy through the promotion of our assets and helping in the coordination of matching employers, business and organizations with what we have to offer. Representative District 44 has many qualities that make it desirable to outside investors, developers and entrepreneurs. We have prime real estate for both commercial and residential purposes, we are perfectly situated for Chicago business and travel and most importantly of all we have a population that values hard work, economic empowerment and education. While it is important to encourage businesses and job creation, through incentives, low taxes and a friendly economic environment, we need to be aware of the consequences of some policies that have adverse effects on the community.Tax breaks given to large corporations need to be based, in law, on conditional criteria, for example, increased employment. Springfield must also provide detail on how specifically the tax break will be paid for. In regards to the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and Sears Economic Development Area (EDA), I truly believe the biggest problem with these policy decisions was the lack of transparency and discussion. Because of the significant amount of public money that is involved, the public should have the right to know how their money is being spent, and also have more of a say in the decision to create a TIF or EDA district. It's important to note that TIF's are meant to promote economic development in ?blighted? areas.Unfortunately, this has been taken advantage of, and there are areas within Illinois that are absolutely NOT 'blighted,' yet are given TIF's. We need to create TIF's, but they should truly be low-income, 'blighted' areas that have struggled in development and not leave the public in the dark.Do you favor limiting how much money party leaders can give candidates during a general election? If elected, do you plan to vote for the current leader of your caucus' Why or why not?I don't think capping the amount of money party leaders give to a candidate during a general election will solve Illinois problems of corruption and scandal. There are many states in the country that have limits in place that have seen insignificant change. One thing I am adamantly opposed to is public financing of campaigns; especially when our state is in financial crises. My first priority is, of course, being elected; the next would be selecting the caucus leader. I believe that Leader Cross has been effective; however until the general election results are in, options must remain open.How, specifically, would you cut the budget? What does Illinois need to do to fix its status as a "deadbeat state?" How have you or will you vote on future gambling bills' What is your view of slots at racetracks' Casino expansion?It is important that we make Illinois into a financially sustainable entity. We need to make sure that we spend only the available revenues that we have and pay our debt. In order to do this, we need to cut our state budget and outdated and ineffective programs that do more harm to our economy than good. Illinois has something called the Local Government Distributive Fund. In short, municipal and county governments are given 10% of income tax receipts based on their population. This number actually translates to about a 2% reduction to localities in general revenue, but would give back $1.1 billion to the state. That 2% reduction is a minimal amount that a local entity should be able to adapt for, just as many families have done in their household. Nonetheless, that's an interesting number to contemplate considering the $3.2 billion individual and corporate tax increase signed into law by Springfield last summer.If that's not a good start, we can continue to look into those outdated and ineffective programs I previously mentioned.For example, the state spends a lot of money on grants that provide things like renovations of tourist sites in remote and low-traffic locations, electronic kiosks that are becoming obsolete in the age of smart phones and tablets, as well as statues and fashion shows. While tourism is a very important part of our economy, we need to make sure we are getting as much out of our dollar as we can, and some things just don't fit the bill. State fairs are a lot of fun, but when tax payers have paid $38 million dollars over the past nine years due to the negative revenue of an expense that is supposed to be self-sufficient, taxpayers really begin to wonder if it is a justifiable expense. There are some states that have gone the way of privatizing or partnering with the private sector for the state fair's management. These are just some examples of some small individual changes, but keep in mind that as these small things accumulate, a lot of money begins to add up, a lot of money that becomes a huge savings.I believe Illinois already has enough Casinos. Des Plaines recently added one that has the closest proximity to Chicago and O?Hare airport. While there was much debate on both sides of the table, it will bring some development to the City of Des Plaines, but nothing to the schools, which is what taxpayers are more concerned about. As for slots at racetracks, I still have not made a decision on whether to support or oppose such efforts.What do you specifically support to deal with the state's pension gap? Would you vote for House Republican Leader Tom Cross's three-tier pension plan? Why or why not?There have been a lot of facts, numbers, and suggestions passed around in the past year. The matter of the fact is that there is a pension shortfall/liability by $83 billion dollars. Regardless of whether you support or oppose any type of pension reform, this amount will catch up to us and either the pensions or the state will end up bankrupt. I refuse to accept either of those two options.As a teacher I am in a unique and fortunate position. I am an individual that supports public schools and its teachers. I have many colleagues that are excellent teachers. I also know teachers that should truly look into moving into a different profession.Many individuals have created relationships with parents and students, they have gotten students to meet or exceed on state assessments, and they have students showing tremendous growth in their learning. I do not want to see the pension system eliminated for teachers. They work very hard, many times in environments that are not conducive to learning, but they do the best they can.Nonetheless, this does not change the fact about the $83 billion dollar liability. Why do we have that liability, well? there are plenty of reasons. There are faults on the side of public policy, the legislature and teacher unions. Finding a culprit will surely not solve this problem, what we need is an innovative solution that can realistically be implemented to benefit both the state and the retirement participants. Tom Cross' 3-tier plan is not an inefficient plan. It addresses the liability that some would rather ignore. It provides three distinctive retirement savings programs for teachers. The first one continues to allow teachers to maintain their current pensions, with the only requirement being that their contributions be increased to 13.77% until 2016, then to a permanent cap of 15.77% thereafter.The second option would be to take an individual's contributions and lower them by 3.4%, rise the retirement age and reduce the final average salary. The third option is to participate in a 401-K style plan, where the member would pay 6% of salary and the state would match that.There are advantages and disadvantages to all three tiers, but I think that is what makes it realistic. The idea behind Tom Cross' 3-tier Pension plan is to eliminate the liability of the pension system while maintaining the pension system for the many hard-working teachers that spend day in and day out working with children from all areas of the economic and ability spectrum. The plan is about giving a little and taking a little, a common-sense act that needs to be more prevalent in Springfield.As a teacher I know how much work it is to do the day-to-day activities in the classroom. There are a lot of hours we put in outside of the classroom. We continue our professional development through continued education such as Master's degrees, and certifications. Many teachers such as me have paid for these out of my own pockets, with the expectation that it will help in instruction. The teaching profession at the elementary level has changed from what it was in the past. It is no longer a 9 -- 3 job with summers off. It is a 9 -- 3 job, until 4 with support groups, 5 with extracurricular, 6 or 7 with parent involvement groups, summer intervention instruction, and continued education coursework.There are some things we can do to assure that government employees will receive their retirement. We pass Tom Cross' 3-tier pension plan and eliminate the liability, which would settle taxpayer concern about funding pensions. We eliminate the pension abuse that has become prevalent in the current system. Personally, if you are not a teacher, you should not get a teacher's pension. I consider one day of substitute work to qualify for a TRS pension abuse, simple as that. Fellow teachers would agree. Additionally, Illinois needs to make its annual pension payment first by making it the first appropriation and expenditure each year.I realize the pension I have focused on is with the Teacher Retirement System, but it is the one with the largest liability and the one that has garnished the most attention. I do think what we do with the TRS pension should apply to all pensions' state wide. We should not pick and choose pensions as we see fit, it is a state issue of financial and social responsibility. The opposition to Tom Cross' plan states that it is a violation of the Illinois Constitution because it is impairing the contractual relationship that was created. While I and fellow teachers have never missed a pension contribution, we would prefer to address this contractual relationship with a feasible and financially sound solution to assure that teachers have a reliable and safe retirement that does not create a heavy burden on Illinois taxpayers.Should gay marriage be legalized? Should Illinois define life as beginning at conception as others have? How would you vote on a concealed carry firearm plan? Should the death penalty be reinstated?I believe in traditional marriage, marriage that is between a man and a woman.I oppose abortion and believe that life begins at conception.I support our Second Amendment and would support responsible legislation for conceal carry.I believe the death penalty should not be reinstated. There have been too many overturned death row convictions due to mistaken evidence.