Maggie Trevor: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Maggie Trevor

City: Rolling Meadows

Website: http://trevorforstaterep.net/

Twitter: @trevor4il54

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maggietrevorforil54/

Office sought: State representative, 54th district

Age: 55

Occupation: Principal/Owner, Trevor Research Services, LLC (market research/business consulting services)

Education: BA, University of Chicago — Chemistry; MA and doctorate, University of Chicago — Political Science.

Civic involvement: Rolling Meadows Environmental Committee, 2015-present; Rolling Meadows Traffic Committee, 2018.

Elected offices held: None.

Questions & Answers

Q. Would you vote to approve a graduated income tax? If so, what qualifiers would you impose and where would you set the brackets? What would the top tax rate be?

I favor a graduated income tax that would make the very wealthy pay their fair share, and alleviating the dependence on property taxes for funding education. Constructing such a tax system in Illinois would be complex, involving not only setting brackets, but also exemptions and deductions. I would favor such a system that did not result in a net increase on middle income families, but ensured that the very wealthy paid their fair share.

Q. How big a problem is the level of property taxation in Illinois? If you view it as a problem, what should be done about it?

Going door-to-door in my district, residents tell me about the burden that high property taxes are placing on their families' budgets. One of my top priorities is to offer middle-class families property tax relief by adequately funding education at the state level and shifting away from the reliance on property taxes as the primary source of funding of our neighborhood schools.

Q. What is your evaluation of Gov. Rauner's job performance? Please specify what you view as its highs and lows.

Gov. Rauner failed to understand for most of his term that government is based on compromise. Unlike the corporate world, those that he works with in state government do not work for him, they are elected to represent the residents of Illinois, and answer to them, not him. Rauner's anti-union agenda was not acceptable to the majority of Illinois residents, and to the majority of legislators in the General Assembly. Rather than working across the aisle to reach a workable compromise on issues where there was common ground, he took an all or nothing position that resulted in 736 days of unpaid bills and real damage to people in this state. Rauner did appear to learn to be more effective and be willing to compromise on key pieces of legislation, including this year's budget and HB40, but his lack of cooperation for most of his term has aggravated an already difficult fiscal situation in Illinois.

Q. What is your evaluation of Speaker Michael Madigan's job performance?

Madigan's leadership did prevent some of Rauner's anti-union agenda, which I believe was good for working people in Illinois. However the legislature and the governor could have reached what seems now as the obvious end point of this standoff much sooner than 736 days. I feel the Democratic and the Republican legislative leadership, as well as Rauner all share the blame on ineffective negotiation, and lack of foresight in seeing an obvious path to end the budget standoff quickly.

Q. Should there be term limits for legislative leaders? If so, what would you do to make that happen? What other systemic changes should be made to strengthen the voice of individual legislators, limit the control of legislative leaders, encourage bipartisanship?

I am not in favor of term limits on legislators. It limits the choice of representation for voters, and creates a lack of accountability among lame-duck legislators. I do feel that term limits on leadership positions as part of broader reform could be effective in maintaining accountability. More importantly, in order to improve accountability of all elected officials, including state legislators, we need to find ways to limit the effect of money in politics in order to reduce the advantage of incumbency, make legislators more responsive to voters, and limit the influence of the ultra wealthy.

Q. How concerned should we be about Illinois' population loss? What needs to be done to reverse the trend?

I've heard going door to door that the underlying concerns driving people to consider leaving are all ultimately related to how we finance education in this state. People are upset with their property taxes, and many see the connection between their high taxes and the state's failure to provide adequate funding for local schools. They also are frustrated with the rise in college tuition for Illinois' public colleges and universities, as well as the uncertainty in funding for higher education created by the budget standoff and are sending their children to be educated at colleges outside the state. We need to approve reasonable budgets in a timely manner, increase tax relief for the middle-class through targeted exemptions, restore state funding of education and reduce the need to rely so heavily on property taxes to fund our local schools in order to make staying in Illinois easier.

Q. Please provide one example that demonstrates your independence from your party.

I was not slated by the Democratic Party. I knocked on approximately 5,000 doors myself last autumn to get my name on the March primary ballot. In the months since I got on the ballot, I have knocked on thousands more doors in the district, and have continued to connect with the voters of the 54th district and hear what is important to them. I identify as a Democrat because I support the major platforms of the Democratic Party, but I owe my place on the ballot to the residents of the 54th district, and if elected, answer to the residents of this district.

What other issues are important to you as a candidate for this office?

When I have talked to voters going door to door in the 54th district, the key issues I hear about are access to affordable health care, education, high property taxes and making our communities safe. I plan to fight for affordable, accessible health care, including fighting for coverage of pre-existing conditions, women's rights, common-sense gun legislation and a fairer system of taxation that provides adequate funding for education while reducing the need to rely on property taxes to alleviate the burden on middle class homeowners.

In addition, equal rights for LGBTQ people has been a key issue in this district for a number of years. District 211 high schools have been at the center of a confrontation between board members who have worked with transgender students and the Department of Education to reach an accommodation, and a small group of parents opposed to the compromise who are being represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a hate group because of its extreme anti-LGBT views. In support of this group, my opponent has introduced legislation requiring students to use the bathroom facilities corresponding to the gender they were assigned to at birth. I am fully committed to full equal rights for LGBTQ people and am opposed to such legislation.

In addition, here a few questions meant to provide more personal insight into you as a person:

Q. What's the hardest decision you ever had to make?

Leaving the education profession was the hardest decision I ever made. I worked for many years to earn my degree and spent six years teaching, but I could see the changes coming in the profession. Colleges and universities beginning in the late 1990s were increasingly relying on adjuncts to fill their teaching ranks. As much as I loved teaching, I was faced with the prospect of moving from school to school for relatively low paying jobs on yearly contracts. With student loans to pay, as well as the need to begin to save for retirement and the desire for some job security, I decided in 1999 to leave academia and enter the business world, where I could earn enough to have more stability in my life. To this day, I do not regret the decision, as it allowed me to improve my situation financially and gave me opportunities to learn and grow in a new profession. But also, to this day, I miss teaching.

Q. Who is your hero?

My mother, Rena Trevor, is my hero. My mother was a political activist in this community for decades. Back in the 1960s, she saw the violence that greeted the first attempt by civil rights activists to peacefully march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge, and was moved to board a bus with her sister and go to Selma to march with Martin Luther King Jr. When she returned, she took what she learned from that experience and rolled up her sleeves to work for practical changes in the Northwest suburbs, fighting for civil rights, open housing and women's rights in ways that transformed this community. And she taught her children that you can't take hard-fought change for granted, that you have to be willing to fight to make sure that we don't lose those rights that so many people have struggled to gain in the past.

Q. Each amendment in the Bill of Rights is important, but which one of those 10 is most precious to you?

The First Amendment is the most important to me. Freedom of speech and of the press, and the right to assemble is critical to maintaining our democracy, and the preservation of all other rights protected in the constitution. In addition, I firmly believe that freedom of religion, in particular the separation of church and state embodied in the founders' intent is critical to maintaining freedom and tolerance in our society.

Q. What lesson of youth has been most important to you as an adult?

Success is a combination of hard work and luck. Work and preparation — getting the best education that you can to gain the skills that you need in life — is essential, but it is also important to appreciate the importance of luck. I was lucky to have grown up in a community that values public education. The great schools I went to here provided me with the opportunity to work hard and do well enough to earn scholarships and to graduate from a highly competitive university in just over three years. That set the stage for many successes in my life, each with their own portions of hard work and luck — a job offer at an opportune time, an important professional contact made through being at the right place at the right time. But through the years I have met many bright, hardworking people who were not as lucky to have the same educational opportunities as I had, or had a long successful career lost by changes in their profession or the untimely closing of an employer. I've learned that you cannot judge your own or others' lot in life as purely a reflection of merit, of having or not having worked hard enough. The best we can do is to make sure that all have opportunities to succeed, and opportunities to recover when we need to be able to get back on our feet.

Q. Think back to a time you failed at something. What did you learn from it?

I was a shy, reserved kid who always struggled to fit in. The fears I had of rejection made me reluctant to participate in activities, to talk to other kids I didn't know well, and limited me in so many ways. As I got older, I learned how universal those fears are, and also that if you want community, it is on each of us to build it, to cross that bridge and engage people, to form those connections.