Candidates for 66th House seat disagree on business issues
The two GOP candidates for the 66th House District want to stimulate business growth but disagree on how to do it, especially when it comes to O'Hare International Airport expansion.
Arlington Heights resident Laura Bartell is pitting her business savvy as a former investment banker against Elk Grove Village Trustee Christine Prochno's 10-year government experience in the hopes of becoming the Republican front-runner in the Feb. 5 election.
Chicago's O'Hare expansion plan is a major divider between the two candidates, with Bartell in support and Prochno staunchly against it.
Bartell believes it's now time to sit down with Chicago to discuss the plan in its current form, as well as a western access route to the airport.
Talking with Chicago sooner could've helped Elk Grove businesses relocate within the village or district in order to prepare for what she said she believes is inevitable expansion.
"We put up a good fight and tried to hold back O'Hare expansion," Bartell said. "We now see that it's going to move forward and we need to capitalize on it before the door is shut and locked."
Chicago has proposed a $7.5 billion project for a western terminal and six parallel runways, all part of the O'Hare Modernization Program. An eastern terminal and improvements like runway patching and baggage security bring the entire project to more than $15 billion. A western access road would be built to accommodate an expanded O'Hare.
Prochno disagrees with Bartell and says she believes in continuing the opposition since the current plan could gut the village's business park, depending upon where the western access road is built.
Village officials have said Elk Grove could lose about 22,000 jobs and 700 businesses in its business park, one of the country's largest contiguous business parks, if the city's plan is approved and a resulting western access route is built through the park.
O'Hare expansion "is the biggest difference that we have between us," Prochno said. "The (Chicago) plan would take away jobs and businesses (from the suburbs)."
On other business issues, Bartell said she'd take a closer look at fees small businesses pay the state. She'd also support "some form of tax incentives."
"We want to keep businesses here," Bartell said. "We want to grow our economy and not our neighbors' (economy)."
As far as incentives are concerned, Prochno said she'd encourage a program that'd give businesses breaks on taxes if they moved into a space that had been vacated for more than a year.
Both candidates are vying for the nomination to run for the seat of longtime Republican state Rep. Carolyn Krause of Mount Prospect, who is not seeking another term.
The primary election is Feb. 5. Mark Walker of Arlington Heights is running unopposed in the Democratic primary and will face the Republican winner in the general election in November.