Carol Sente: 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: Vernon HillsWebsite: votecarolsente.comTwitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: 59th State House District Age: 55Family: My parents immigrated from Hungary and Austria in 1956 after fighting in the Hungarian Revolution and WWII. I am a first generation American, born in Chicago. My father passed away in 2011 and my mother passed away during the last election in 2014. I have a sister who I am extremely close with; she lives in Mt. Prospect. Her children, now young adults, are my two godchildren. I see and/or converse with them often. I am single. The rest of my large extended family lives abroad. We are very close and correspond weekly.Occupation: Self Employed - Owner of a Management Consulting Firm - CS Consulting LLCEducation: Bachelor of Science in Business from Indiana University, Bloomington, INCivic involvement: Vice President Vernon Hills Park BoardCounselor at Camp I Am Me (Burn Camp)Counselor and Board Member of Children's Grieving CampBoard Member of the Sommer Memorial Foundation - Scholarships for Children who lost a parentWillow Creek Church Baptism, Guest Central, and Bookstore CommitteesFundraiser for YMCA Camp DuncanElected offices held: State Representative District 59 from September 12, 2009 to presentVernon Hills Park Board Vice President 2005-2009Questions 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?I am a chief co-sponsor of HJRCA 58 for a more fair method of redistricting and am a supporter of the Illinois Fair Map Amendment. I feel very strongly about moving the redistricting proposal forward and will continue to fight for this measure. I believe the best way to have competitive districts is through a combination of instituting a more fair way of drawing legislative boundaries and overturning Citizens United to eliminate the increasing influence of Super PACs on financing candidates. With competitive districts and less monetary influence, we will accomplish term limits in a less artificial sense and keep the voter in control of who they believe to be the best candidate. I believe in term limits for leaders and have filed a bill to do so on two occasions. As in business, I believe in competition. I think competitive elections offer the voters choices and help motivate politicians to be true public servants. I hope to see several choices for legislative leader in the coming year and will make my decision on the best candidate at that time.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?At this time, I have not supported any tax increases. I have some concern about the regressive nature of a tax on sugary drinks. I believe my constituents and Illinois residents want to see a comprehensive solution of major issue reform, budget cuts and elimination of waste before considering new revenue.What changes, if any, do you support in education and education funding in Illinois? Please be specific.Funding education in a more equitable manner so that all children have an opportunity for a world-class education is one of my top priorities. I supported the increased funding for Early Childhood through High School general state aid, and funding for the Monetary Assistance Program [MAP] grants this year. We need to make college more accessible and affordable for all students. I believe there are some areas where we could cut the administrative costs in higher education and I found some of the abuses of funding at the College of DuPage troubling. With that said, MAP grants are an important way to allow low income students to go to college, and I am supportive of the community college measures to reduce the costs of education to students if they meet certain grade and attendance thresholds. Our state's education funding formula needs to find a way to make education funding more fair and equitable. I supported this spring's budget to provide a higher level of funding to all Illinois public schools including all schools in my District. I do not support a change to the state's education funding formula that would create a system of winners and losers, or take any money from any of my local school districts.On Illinois' budget, specifically, where do you believe cuts need to be made?We can save money in a host of areas including consolidating the Comptroller's and Treasurer's offices and eliminating the Lt. Governor's office. We can rebid state contracts on a regular basis, and dramatically improve our procurement process because I believe we pay too much for many services and have insufficient oversight to make sure we are getting good value for state contracts. We can reduce the amount of overtime in state agencies and introduce performance pay for managers who find savings in their departments through better processes and more efficiency. One of the best ways to cut costs is to have a stricter adherence to my Budgeting for Results law which sets a realistic annual budget ceiling, identifies goals of what Illinois chooses to fund, creates a three year budget projection, makes agencies identify the performance metrics they will use to evaluate how wisely they spent their resources allocated, and builds a ground up zero based budget.What approach do you support toward fixing the public pension systems?I serve on the Pension Committee and supported SB 1, a sweeping reform that would have resolved the large unfunded liability but was found unconstitutional. I supported the Tier II reform which created a new system for employees after 2011 where employees pay more, work longer and receive less benefits. I supported reducing end of career pension spiking and double dipping. We need to continue making our full pension payment annually. When our current pension bonds expire, I support continuing to make these payments to help our underfunding. We need to resolve the issues created with the Tier II legislation.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?My top priorities are passing a bi-partisan, balanced budget, finding constitutionally valid solutions to resolve our pension situation, and finding a more equitable education funding formula, These issues have been addressed in questions above. Additionally, I believe we need to invest in a capital program to maintain our infrastructure and facilities. Building projects put people to work and stimulate the economy. As a small business owner, I am passionate about encouraging more economic development and growing better paying jobs. I care very much about protecting our planet, increasing our green energy sources and protecting our valuable resources.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.Sheryl Sandberg, COO and first female board member of Facebook, inspires me to help advance careers and lives of female professionals.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?My parents instilled in me to respect others, judge less, and that personal integrity is everything.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?My older sister died in a car accident at 23 years old. I would have gone on that trip and kept her awake while driving.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Advertising was my favorite subject because I learned to effectively communicate a position and build consensus.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?Live with joy and be thankful for the simple pleasures present in each day of life you are granted.