Aurora candidates wrangle over taxes, crime

The gloves came off Thursday night as Aurora's three mayoral candidates focused more on their platforms and threw a few more jabs in the second of three scheduled forums.

Alderman at Large Richard Irvin bashed incumbent Mayor Tom Weisner for tax increases during his first term. Third Ward Alderman Stephanie Kifowit bashed both for not wanting to change the city's strong mayor form of government, and Weisner took both to task for "not doing much of anything" during their aldermanic terms.

Slightly differing from last month's forum, the format of Thursday's event at Aurora University's Crimi Auditorium allowed candidates to discuss any goals or plans they would work toward if elected. The local economy and crime stats dominated.

Irvin first took issue with the city's $1.91 per $100 property tax rate, saying residents pay three times what Naperville residents pay. He said the city's "economic crisis" is the biggest issue facing the city.

"As soon as I become elected mayor of the city of Aurora, the first thing I'm going to do is roll back the Weisner tax increases by reducing the budget by looking through every single department and finding where we have waste," he said, promising to cut mayoral staff. "We need to bring jobs to the city of Aurora by the mayor being directly involved in economic development and by building up and growing our business district."

Weisner countered, saying he raised taxes only to fund the construction of the new police station, set to open in January, just west of Farnsworth Avenue and Indian Trail Road.

"When we raised taxes, we raised taxes by about $75 on an average house in Aurora," he said. "We did not raise taxes to pay for the entire cost of the building and facilities. We raised them just enough to make the construction of that building possible."

Kifowit built on Irvin's case, identifying 22 vacant downtown storefronts and noting the city has no small-business plans in place.

"I agree with where Richard Irvin stands on our need to reduce the budget, but I'm not going to advocate firing people to do that."

Weisner told the packed auditorium that his priority in the next four years would be to build on advancements made in the police department that have led to 30-year lows in major crimes.

"As they say, if it isn't broke, don't fix it," Weisner said, noting how under his administration police focused on community policing and partnering with both neighbors and federal agencies to reduce crime and gang violence.

"We've had great success, but we have to move forward and we can't become complacent," he said.

Kifowit agreed crime is a major issue in the mayoral race but argued crime is on a downward spiral nationwide, not just in Aurora.

"The fact is, according to FBI crime data, crime has fallen to a 43-year low," she said. "The nation's violent crime has also fallen to a 35-year low, so ladies and gentlemen we're average."

Irvin also accused the mayor of taking too much credit for crime numbers.

"Most of what Mayor Weisner said were initiatives that started well before he was in office, and he has done very little to build on those initiatives," Irvin said. "Now crime is down but it's not enough to say crime is down by itself. You have to focus on crime suppression. What that mayor hasn't said is that crime has gone up dramatically in recent weeks with three murders just in the last three days."

The three candidates are set to square off one last time at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Wesley United Methodist Church, 14 N. May St., Aurora.