Schaumburg mayoral candidates spar at forum

Folks attending Saturday’s candidate forum in Schaumburg were painted different pictures by the two men seeking the mayor’s post in the April 5 election.

Incumbent Al Larson talked about Schaumburg’s struggles with the recession and the strides that have been made to restore the suburb to financial glory. Meanwhile, challenger Brian Costin portrayed the village as overtaxed and burdened by poor investment decisions.

“I find it amusing that we’re being portrayed as unfriendly to business when we’ve got the second largest sales tax base in the state next to Chicago,” Larson said.

Costin harped on the village’s involvement in the convention center financing, layoffs at the police and fire departments, spending increases and the village’s recently added property tax.

“We need to cut services that aren’t needed, not police and fire,” Costin said. “I see the Schaumburg trolley driving around town empty most the time. If people aren’t using services, we need to get rid of them. Start there.”

The two traded barbs throughout their hourlong showdown hosted by the League of Women Voters. Another hour was devoted to the six candidates vying for three village board seats.

Costin called for a law requiring all tax hikes in the city to be put to a vote of the public, complaining that the village board has raised taxes numerous time in recent years.

But Larson disagrees with that proposal and denied the accusations of tax hikes.

“We elect village officials to make tough decisions,” Larson said. “Putting things like that to a vote every time would paralyze government.”

Both candidates took credit for the city removing red light cameras at Meacham and Woodfield roads.

“That was something the board did, not Mr. Costin, even though he likes to take credit for that,” Larson said.

But Costin pointed out the city didn’t offer any refunds to anyone who was caught by the cameras while they were up.

“Who installed the red light cameras in the first place?” Costin retorted. “You even put them at an intersection that didn’t have any crashes related to red-light running.”

They did agree on one issue though: Potholes.

“There are a lot of areas in the budget we can cut that have nothing to do with core services, so we can fix potholes instead,” Costin said.

The mayor had a simple answer about the road ruts.

“I’m against potholes,” he said. “We’re doing a good job of fixing potholes, so I don’t know why it’s an issue.”