Allen Skillicorn: Candidate Profile

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:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: East DundeeWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: East Dundee Village boardAge: 36Family: Married to Heather. We live in East Dundee with a 7 year old Therapy dog named Captain Kid.Occupation: Marketing, Power Electronics International, Inc. Located in East Dundee, IL. Employed at Power Electronics for over 10 years.Education: Graduated from Dundee Crown High School with 3 years of college.Civic involvement: Director of Grassroots Revolution, a local good government group.Volunteer with the Illinois Policy InstituteVolunteer with Therapy Dogs, Inc.Elected offices held: NoneHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: NoCandidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Responsible spending - Residents deserve quality service at a reasonable cost. As your trustee, I will work hard to balance these needs and put the community first.Key Issue 2 Fiscal Accountability - East Dundee should be more open with municipal financial information. As a new Trustee I'll pursue cost effective transparency measures like posting East Dundee's check register and employee salaries online, at no cost, with our existing website.Key Issue 3 East Dundee needs to be more competitive for attracting business, specifically retail establishments like a grocery store. Additional sales tax revenue would also ease our overall tax burden.Questions Answers What makes you the best candidate for the job?We need independent village trustees with the initiative to make our municipality better. I'm running because I've attended village board meetings for the last couple years and see areas for improvement. During these tight financial times, it's important we have trustees focused on how we tax and spend taxpayer dollars. Our village raised property taxes this year. That concerns me. I'm running to reform spending and keep property taxes low. During the past year, I worked to make East Dundee finance records open to you, the public. You can view them now, at www.GrassrootsRevolution.us. While this simple act to promote transparency doesn't achieve anything on its own, it enables progress. You can't improve what you can't measure.Given the delicate balance between the need for revenue and over-taxing local businesses, what is your opinion of your community's present level of local sales taxes? Is the tax just right, too low or too high? Explain.Currently, East Dundee spends more per resident than many other similar sized villages. Before asking residents or businesses for more money, we need to focus on realistic ways to provide the same level of service, at a lower cost. As a new independent trustee on the village board, I would offer a higher level of scrutiny to budgetary matters. Sometimes you need a fresh pair of eyes. We need new ideas for old governing approaches, innovation.Talking with your friends and neighbors, what seems to be their biggest public safety concern? Explain the concern as you see it, and discuss how you think it should be addressed.Maintaining professional police service and safe roads under difficult economic circumstances. See answers above.In these tight economic times, municipal budgets have to be prioritized. Where, if anywhere, could the current budget be trimmed, and conversely, are there areas the budget does not give enough money to?Duplicative services at the township and municipal level as well as opportunities for outsourcing must be discussed. Other villages like Grayslake have saved millions by outsourcing services from surrounding governments.What#146;s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?Fiscal accountability - Posting the check register, salaries, and budget information online. Again, we can't improve what we can't measure.