Franks, O'Neill tackle state budget, jobs in 63rd House race

With the unemployment rate in McHenry County hovering near 10 percent and local social service agencies reeling from cuts, job creation and the $13 billion state budget deficit will be at the top of the agenda as voters from the 63rd state House District head to the polls in November.

The 63rd District extends to the Wisconsin border and includes Woodstock, Wonder Lake, Spring Grove and parts of Crystal Lake and McHenry.

Incumbent Democrat Jack Franks, who has served in the House since 1999, would tackle the massive deficit with zero-based budgeting. This approach would require state agencies to justify every spending request, instead of only requests that are above and beyond what was approved the previous year.

The Marengo legislator believes the state can trim $3 billion from its budget by doing away with or consolidating many state agencies.

Franks would eliminate the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, combine the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, merge the treasurer's and comptroller's offices, eliminate the lieutenant governor's office and slash salaries for members of the General Assembly by 25 percent.

Franks says he does not believe higher taxes are the solution.

"Illinois has a spending problem, not a revenue problem," Franks wrote in a Daily Herald candidate questionnaire.

Franks pledged to fight attempts to raise taxes and instead supports new tax incentives for business growth and job creation.

Republican John O'Neill doesn't offer specifics for trimming the budget but wrote in his candidate questionnaire: "Until we complete a line-by-line audit of the budget, it will be difficult to know where we even stand and the magnitude of waste, fraud and corruption which exists in the budget."

The Republican leadership in the House and several Democrats - including Franks - have signed onto the idea.

Franks says his zero-based budgeting is basically the same idea and criticized O'Neill for his lack of specifics.

"I've been talking about for years doing zero-based budgeting, which is by definition, line by line," Franks said. He added: "We need to have solutions to problems. That's why I outlined and itemized specifically what we can do."

O'Neill said the recent pension reform for public workers, which Franks supported as a way to address the state's underfunded pension obligations, did not go far enough in trimming benefits for existing and future employees.

O'Neill writes: "This so-called 'Pension Reform' simply kicks the can down the road for the next General Assembly to deal with."

Instead, O'Neill supports "401(k)-type" retirement accounts for public employees that would be funded by workers' salaries as well as matching contributions from the government body they work for.