Spending cuts needed in Springfield, 62nd District candidates say

He scored an upset two years ago to take the seat, but this year's election finds incumbent Democratic state Rep. Sam Yingling defending his turf.

Republican Rod Drobinski, a Lake County gangs prosecutor, is challenging Yingling for the 62nd House seat which represents all or parts of Grayslake, Hainesville, the Round Lake communities, Lake Villa, Gurnee, Wildwood and Gages Lake.

Yingling, of Grayslake, describes himself as an independent. He said he wants to continue his goal of trimming unnecessary layers of government and consolidating services.

Wauconda resident Drobinski is a self-described "blue-collar guy" who wants to curb state spending.

Both agree the 2011 state income tax increase should be allowed to expire and the rate revert to 3.75 percent in 2015.

Yingling, the former Avon Township supervisor, said he ran for office to fix a broken system and believes the General Assembly has made strides in correcting the fiscal situation by whittling the backlog of unpaid state bills by more than half to about $4.5 billion. But more needs to be done, he added.

"The reality is there's going to have to be more significant budget cuts," said Yingling, who is on the House's General Services Appropriations Committee.

"The state simply has lived beyond its means for far too long and it finally caught up with it. Additional spending cuts are going to have to be made and it's going to be difficult choices," such as cuts in human services, he said. "Not everyone is going to be happy, but we're in a difficult time and there have to be difficult decisions made."

He said the extent of spending reductions will depend on what happens with the pension reform bill, which may be decided by the Illinois Supreme Court.

"Until we know that answer it's going to be difficult to actually project what cuts if any have to be made," he added.

Drobinski contends the state hasn't had a truly balanced budget in years, and state lawmakers including Yingling continue to overspend.

"We need to roll back the tax rate to what it was before and roll the budget back to 2011," he said. "We need to make government more lean." As an example, he cited fraud and abuse in Medicaid as an area that needs continued examination. Bureaucracies, such as Central Management Services, also should be targeted for cuts, he added.

"We need to start cutting bureaucracy, we need to roll back our budget, and we need to fill the promises the politicians made to us when they hiked the taxes in 2011," he said.

Regarding the income tax, Yingling said he wasn't in office when the hike was passed into law, but said he wants to ensure it expires as scheduled.

Drobinski agreed saying "politicians" lied when they said it would be temporary.