54th House GOP candidates talk budget fixes

Candidates in the 54th District House Republican primary race focused on "disaster cleanup" for the state of Illinois, during a forum in Palatine Saturday.

Six-term incumbent Suzanne "Suzie" Bassi, a former high schoolteacher, is facing Tom Morrison, owner of ServPro Industries in Elk Grove Village. Both candidates are Palatine residents.

The League of Women Voters' forum, attended by roughly 70 people, was held at Palatine's village hall at the same time residents were taking part in early voting a few rooms away. The league received special permission by Cook County Clerk David Orr to hold the event in such proximity to an early voting site, voter services chair Susan Spengler said.

Both candidates said they would be not be in favor of raising taxes to deal with Illinois' ever-increasing budget hole.

Morrison called for "radical reform" of Medicaid and the pension system, while Bassi quickly rattled off a laundry list of proposed fixes - among them freezing operational spending, consolidating K-12 school districts, and introducing new pension plans for new hires.

To restore local jobs, Bassi suggested allowing startup companies to defer paying state taxes.

Morrison, who touted his business experience, called for making Illinois a more business friendly state.

"No one can beat the American work force, but if those products can be produced in Indiana, they will move," he warned. He did not, however, elaborate on specific ways to fix the problem.

Both candidates called for further limiting Medicaid eligibility. "(Former Gov. Rod) Blagojevich raised the number of Medicaid recipients to an unsustainable number. We've got to come up with a different solution," she said.

Asked how to protect the state's commitment to education in a dire budget year, Morrison said a healthier local business climate would help out schools.

Bassi predicted things will only get worse.

"We're looking at a dire future, money that we've been using to fund mandated categoricals has been filled with stimulus funds," she said.

The 54th district encompasses parts of Palatine, Rolling Meadows, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Schaumburg, Roselle and Bloomingdale.