Suzanne Glowiak: Candidate Profile

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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:BioQA Bio City: Western SpringsWebsite: http://suzyforsenate.comOffice sought: 24th District Senate Age: 57Family: I have three children.Occupation: Mechanical EngineerEducation: B.S. Mechanical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. M.S. in Manufacturing Engineering from Northwestern University.Civic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: Trustee, Village of Western SpringsQuestions Answers How will you work to make the General Assembly function more productively and effectively? Wlll you vote to retain your party's current legislative leader? In what specific ways do you support changing how government in Springfield works?I will fight to make government more bipartisan, efficient, transparent, and accountable. No one party has a monopoly on good ideas. I will work across the aisle to advance meaningful legislation on responsible budgeting, lower taxes, and better education. In order to fix the problems facing Illinois, we need bipartisan reforms to make state bidding processes more transparent, strengthen campaign finance laws, and take politics out of redistricting. I will vote to cut legislator salaries, and to ban politicians from taking multiple taxpayer-funded pensions.If the Supreme Court, strikes down the SB 1 pension reform, what is your Plan B and why do you think it would be both legal and effective?If SB 1 is found unconstitutional, legislators must react quickly and create a sustainable solution that is both constitutional and produces significant savings. As a starting point, I would support re-examining the model proposed in SB 2404, which is considered to be more constitutionally viable, and would address our current pension shortfall while preventing future misuse of funds. No matter the legal status of SB 1, I will also fight to make sure we satisfy our current pension obligations in full; Illinois cannot afford to deepen the pension hole.As it stands now, the 2011 income tax increase will expire as planned on Jan. 1. Do you think that expiration should be reconsidered? Would you support making the increase permanent or extending it for some period of time? Please be specific about what level of tax increase, if any, you would support.Legislators pitched the 2011 income tax as a temporary fix to a temporary problem. However, years later, the problem remains. We must roll back both the individual and corporate increases on schedule, and focus on cutting spending in order to get our state back on the right fiscal track. Rolling back the tax increases will ultimately increase our tax revenues by promoting economic growth and expanding the tax base. The rollback is crucial to decreasing financial burdens on taxpayers, making our state more business-friendly, and creating jobs.Do you support cuts in state spending? If so, what specifically do you suggest cutting and how will those cuts be sufficient to restore the state's financial health and economic climate?Yes. Illinois can create substantial savings by identifying and eliminating redundancies and other inefficiencies. Illinois has approximately 7,000 units of local government, and we should encourage consolidation or elimination of redundancies, using the recent SB494 as a blueprint. We must also impose greater scrutiny on state grant and bidding programs, review business tax credit awards, and reform the state commission system by reducing or eliminating pay for positions that are not full-time. Finally, I would sponsor a vote to eliminate legislative pensions and free lifetime healthcare as an important first step toward restoring voter confidence in the legislature.What changes, if any, do you believe the state should make in the area of education? Would you support the the so-called pension cost-shift to local schools?I understand the importance of proper education funding as a mother of three children educated in the public school system. I am firmly against shifting the cost of teacher pensions to our local schools. A cost shift would force school districts to slash their budgets, decreasing teachers in the classroom and eliminating opportunities for students, or force unacceptable hikes in already-high property taxes to cover remaining expenses. I am committed to properly funding our education system, making early education more accessible and college more affordable for middle-class families, and cutting administrative waste at all levels.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?As a woman and a mother, I am particularly concerned with protecting the health and safety of women and families across Illinois. That includes the passage of responsible gun control laws to keep schools and communities safe, and the protection of a woman's right to control their own healthcare decisions. I will be enthusiastically voting yes on ballot referenda to pass common sense assault weapons bans and protect a woman's access to birth control, and I look forward to working on those same issues in the legislature.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Angela Merkel inspires me because her education was in the sciences and she used her analytical mind to lead Europe out of the financial crisis.What's the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?There were no limitations, you could be anything you set your mind to. This allowed me to become an engineer, a trustee and a breadwinner.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Don't sweat the small stuff.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?My favorite subject was mathematics. My love of solving problems has served me well on the Village Board in Western Springs.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Have a full life with important work, a satisfying career and make a positive contribution to our society.