Jim Oberweis: Candidate Profile

Back to 25th State Senate District

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: Sugar GroveWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Twitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: 25th State Senate District Age: 70Family: Wife - JulieChildren - Jenni, Trish, Jim, Julie, Joe20 grandkids and 2 stepchildrenOccupation: State Senator and Chairman of Oberweis DairyEducation: Marmion Military AcademyUniversity of Illinois, Urbana, BAUniversity of Chicago, MBACivic involvement: Serve on the board of the Northern Illinois Food BankFormer President of the Illinois Chess AssociationPresident of The Oberweis FoundationElected offices held: Illinois SenateState Central CommitteeRepublican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2014Questions Answers What needs to be done structurally to make the legislature more effective? Will you vote for your current legislative leader? What is your position on term limits in general and specifically for legislative leaders? Do you support the ongoing drive for a constitutional amendment on redistricting? What will you do to promote implementation of any changes you recommend?We must have balance between the two parties to require compromise and cooperation. Veto proof majorities do not produce compromise. I am a very strong supporter of Term Limits. I was the largest volunteer circulator of the term limits petition two years ago. I also support the redistricting constitutional amendment. It appears that we will have to elect one additional Republican Supreme Court judge if we want to let citizens vote on the term limit and redistricting constitutional amendments.Would you vote for an increase in state income taxes or sales taxes? Would you vote for new taxes, such as on services? What is your position on a graduated income tax?Illinois is already one of the highest taxed states in the nation. We must work to reduce the waste, fraud and abuse so prevalent in Illinois before we talk about taxes. We also must first pass the common sense reforms proposed by the Governor before we pass any tax increases. IF and ONLY IF we pass those reforms would I consider a temporary tax increase to pay down the backlog of unpaid bills. A graduated income tax would be the best way I can think of to accelerate the exodus of small businesses and jobs from Illinois.What changes, if any, do you support in education and education funding in Illinois? Please be specific.Vision 20/20 has identified the most cost effective ways to improve education in Illinois. Those suggestions should be carefully considered. State aide to education needs to be understandable. A foundation level grant for each student plus an adjustment based on poverty levels plus an adjustment for special needs students makes sense to me. Those criteria and amounts should be known to all.On Illinois' budget, specifically, where do you believe cuts need to be made?Unfortunately, there is little room in our stressed budget for anything but cuts. K-12 takes up about 25% of our GRF budget and no one wants to cut that. Required pension payments will take about another 25% of our budget and the courts have not allowed any adjustment there so that means the other 50% of the budget may be under the knife. But the most important thing is that we must the reforms so necessary to get our economy growing faster and creating more jobs so that we have a bigger pie to tax instead of trying to take an ever larger piece of a static or shrinking pie. That will not work.What approach do you support toward fixing the public pension systems?I sponsored legislation to put all future employees on a defined contribution plan instead of a defined benefit plan. I believe that is a critical path that we must follow. I also support protecting all defined benefits earned so far but stopping the accrual of any future defined benefits and converting current employees to a defined contribution plan. I also support President Cullerton's ideas as well, including not considering future raises as pensionable, but I don't believe that goes far enough. I would also limit individual pensions to some number such as $100,000/year.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?We must get to a balanced budget so that everyone knows where the state is going. Current uncertainty makes it difficult to attract entrepreneurs and jobs. Passing the reform agenda is critical to the financial survival of Illinois.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Paul RyanWhat is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?Keep trying. Hard work pays off eventually.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?my marriageWhat was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?economics. It has helped me to understand what is necessary to get our economy growing again.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Stay out of politics.