Economic problems put pressure on suburban mayoral candidates

Campaigning door-to-door recently, Hanover Park Village President Rod Craig found the reality of the times at door after door.

At one home, he met a husband and wife who had both been laid off.

In the next, the resident said she was just happy to have her job because her husband had lost his.

And right next door, Craig met a worried man who was getting ready to got to work at a company that had just bought out his old employer. He wasn't sure they would keep him on.

Leading a town with many first-time homebuyers, Craig is hearing even worse stories - about families who have lost their homes and now go from shelter to shelter, worrying about how to get their children to school every morning.

"What they look to me for is, 'Mr. Mayor, do you have any opportunity for work? Can you point me in the right direction?' " he says.

Like no other election campaign in recent memory, mayoral candidates across the suburbs are facing such desperate questions.

Craig, his opponent, Hanover Park Trustee Lori Kaiser, and scores of suburban residents vying to lead their communities are on the front lines of the economic war, but have relatively little in their arsenal. And candidates who end up winning in April face four years of very difficult decisions, as they try to patch huge budget holes amid declining revenue.

On one hand, suburbanites are calling on them to do something about the economy - create jobs and fill the emptying storefronts. Then they warn them clearly not to take any more money out of their pocket to do it.

"The first thing I hear out of their mouths is, 'Don't raise my taxes,'" Kaiser said.

But while many politicians will vow not to raise taxes, it won't be an easy pledge to keep.

As car sales decline, stores shut down and more homeowners fall into foreclosure, the tax dollars that support local government vanish. Towns rely on two main sources of revenue to hire workers and provide for social programs, like job training and housing assistance: sales taxes and property taxes.

If the local Circuit City shuts down, there goes the tax dollars it brought in. When car dealerships can't sell cars, there's another big hole in the village budget.

Compounding the problem is the fact that those very tax dollars often are used by mayors and village boards to entice new development, lure businesses and plan for expansions that would create jobs and economic stability.

Many suburbs already have started layoffs and are looking at freezing salaries or raising fees and taxes just to keep afloat. The systemic collapse has been the focus of intense meetings for months at government associations in the Chicago area.

No easy solution is in sight. Many mayors and mayoral hopefuls see themselves between a rock and a hard place.

"They see themselves as being in a really tough position," says Rick Mattoon, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. "The problem is that in this environment they won't have the financial wherewithal to really do much to help the economy."

And no community has been spared.

Mark Fowler, executive director of the Northwest Municipal Conference, says officials in just about every suburb are contemplating significant cuts while struggling to find the means to jump-start their own local economy.

"No one is immune," he says.

Take East Dundee, which largely survives on property taxes, a string of car dealerships and Wal-Mart to support a modest $4.5 million operating budget.

The car dealerships haven't been selling many cars lately and the Wal-Mart is set to shut down as a larger one opens in West Dundee.

Wal-Mart alone makes up about 20 percent of the tax income for the village. With trickling sales this year at the car dealers and shorter lines at retail stores, East Dundee is facing a 23 percent decline in revenue.

"It is really sad," says Village President Dan O'Leary. "The economy is declining faster than we can try to turn it around."

East Dundee has had a rough time attracting development in recent years. The old Santa's Village property still sits vacant.

The looming crisis has local politicians battling out possible solutions on the campaign trail as the board of trustees ponders employee furlough and service cutbacks - a pattern repeating itself across the collar counties.

Jim Bartels, a former village president running to retake the helm, takes aim at O'Leary and the current board for what he considers lavish spending on laptops and conference trips. He says voters don't expect miracles when it comes to creating jobs, but they do expect "us to tighten our belts."

O'Leary defends his record and points out the winner will have to deal with the same demands from jittery residents and restrictions from tanking tax revenue as he endures today.

"In the end," he says, "whoever is the village president is going to have some very tough decisions to make."

Many candidates are mapping out detailed job-creation plans to voters.

"People are scared," says Aurora Alderman Richard Irvin, who is running for mayor in a three-way race. "The number one issue I'm hearing about is jobs, jobs, jobs."

Mayor Thomas Weisner is under fire from his challengers for faltering development projects as the city faces falling revenue from the Hollywood Casino and taxes.

Weisner says he will continue to expand job opportunities by attracting federal and state dollars for construction projects. He also pledges to run "a tight ship."

"We are looking to be very austere and do what we have to do to make sure we don't have to raise taxes," he said.

Irvin and Aurora Alderman Stephanie Kifowit have their own plans to boost business in the city and create jobs.

Irvin wants to provide low-interest loans to businesses and Kifowit is proposing business tax breaks for new hires.

"There are opportunities out there, but we won't realize them if we keep doing what we have always been doing," Kifowit says.

Irvin and Kifowit, like most candidates in Hanover Park and East Dundee, would like to see local government doing more for those out of work or losing their homes. But they all say it's hard to do while also struggling to address other needs, such as fixing roads.

"We have to be very fiscally responsible," Irvin says.