John Paul Augustynowicz: 2026 candidate for Illinois House District 49

Bio

Office sought: State Representative IL-49

Party: Republican

City: Warrenville

Age: 48

Previous offices held: Ward 4 Alderman - Warrenville

Q&A

What do you consider the three most pressing issues facing the state in the next four years, and how should they be addressed?

Property taxes, jobs and affordability. Property taxes keep rising in part because Springfield continues to push costs down to local governments.

In my own community, pension obligations alone have forced us to increase the levy just to meet state requirements. The state should stop shifting costs to municipalities and give local governments more control over their own budgets.

On jobs, Illinois needs better information before it can fix the problem. DCEO’s own business-relocation survey has said its response rate was too low to draw conclusions about why companies leave. We need better reporting on closures and relocations so we can identify the real causes, then adjust taxes, regulations and workforce policy accordingly.

Finally, affordability has become disconnected from reality. When a developer can call a $2,500-a-month two-bedroom apartment “affordable,” something is wrong. We need to judge state policies by a simple question. "Are they making it easier or harder for working families to afford housing, taxes and everyday life?"

How would you assess the General Assembly's handling, to date, of the various proposals surrounding a Chicago Bears stadium in Arlington Heights? What proposals would you have been willing to support and in what ways, if any, might you have approached it differently?

Illinois had years to reach a deal. The Bears bought Arlington Park in 2023, but Springfield failed to produce a workable agreement, and the team has since shifted its focus toward Hammond.

I would not support taxpayers financing a privately owned stadium. The Bears should pay for the stadium itself. Illinois could reasonably negotiate infrastructure improvements and a property-tax agreement that protects local schools and taxpayers.

We should evaluate a project like this the same way we evaluate other major economic-development proposals: what does the state invest, what does the private company invest, and what does Illinois get in return? We should have had that discussion years ago, before Indiana put a competing offer on the table.

Now roughly three years into the elimination of cash bail in Illinois as part of the SAFE-T Act, how would you assess the success or failure of the criminal justice reform measure? What changes, if any, would you support?

I think the results are mixed. I support repealing the SAFE-T Act, but I agree with the principle that pretrial freedom should not depend on a person’s ability to pay.

If someone presents a real danger or serious flight risk, detention should be a decision for a judge. One flaw in the current law is that judges are limited by which offenses are eligible for detention, even when the facts of a case raise serious public-safety concerns.

After we repeal the SAFE-T Act, we rebuild the pretrial system without returning to financial conditions as the deciding factor in release. Judges should have meaningful discretion, defendants should receive due process, and the law should be applied consistently statewide. The same law should not produce fundamentally different pretrial practices depending on whether a case is in Cook County or DuPage County.

Illinois homeowners face one of the highest relative property tax burdens in the country. What specific proposals could you offer to ease the burden on state residents?

I would restore the Local Government Distributive Fund to 10% of state income-tax revenues and oppose unfunded mandates on local governments.

Springfield cannot keep more revenue for itself, while imposing additional costs and requirements on municipalities, and then act surprised when property taxes rise. Those costs eventually end up with the homeowners.

Returning LGDF to its previous level would put locally generated tax dollars back into communities and reduce pressure on property-tax levies.

Gov. JB Pritzker recently paused a state initiative granting incentives to data center developers, and residents statewide have concerns about how such developments are affecting their access to water, utility rates, and the environment. How should the state approach data centers going forward?

I agree with the governor’s decision to pause data center incentives, and I don’t believe these projects need state tax breaks.

Data centers are part of a digital revolution that is already here. This is not just ChatGPT. It's Facebook, YouTube, cloud storage, streaming and the systems businesses increasingly depend on. Illinois should want that investment and the jobs and tax base that can come with it.

But growth cannot come at the expense of the communities hosting it. Warrenville relies on an aquifer for drinking water, and our area has already spent decades dealing with contamination along the DuPage River. I have real concerns about putting high-demand facilities where water use, power demand or environmental impacts could threaten a community.

We should welcome the investment, but make developers pay their own way, protect taxpayers and water supplies, and keep local communities at the table.

Illinois’ “sanctuary” policies concerning immigration have made it a target for the Trump administration and critics who say they encourage criminal behavior. How do you feel about those policies, and how, if at all, would you change them?

I oppose Illinois' sanctuary policies, but I also believe the Constitution has to be applied consistently, even when I dislike the policy result.

The federal government cannot simply commandeer state and local police to enforce federal civil immigration law. But Illinois has gone further than simply declining to do the federal government's job. The TRUST Act generally bars local law enforcement from voluntarily assisting federal civil immigration enforcement, including transfers and access to people already in custody.

I would change that. Local law enforcement should retain discretion to cooperate with federal authorities when there is a legitimate public-safety reason, while still requiring proper legal process and protecting constitutional rights.

My standard is the same here as it is on other federalism questions: Washington should not be able to order local government around, but Springfield should not prohibit local officials from cooperating when they believe it is necessary to protect their community.

Many women in the legislature complain about a culture of sexual harassment in Springfield. Do you see evidence of this and, if so, what should be done about it?

My position has not changed since I worked as a legislative staffer: nobody should have to tolerate harassment or fear losing a job because an elected official cannot behave professionally.

Recent events show Springfield still has a problem. The Legislative Inspector General found that former Rep. Harry Benton engaged in conduct that rose to the level of sexual harassment. The LIG report also confirmed that Speaker Chris Welch’s office knew about an allegation in April 2023 but did not address it with Benton until July. In my view, Speaker Welch should resign.

I remember hearing stories about this culture when I worked for a state representative. Staffers, especially young staffers trying to build careers, should never have to choose between speaking up and protecting their jobs.

I would support an independent, professional HR structure for the General Assembly, clear reporting procedures outside the chain of command, strong anti-retaliation protections, and mandatory referral of credible complaints for investigation. Legislators should be held to at least the same workplace standards we expect everywhere else.

Are you satisfied with the state's existing ethics policies for senators and representatives? If so, what about the policies should reassure Illinoisans that elected leaders abide by high standards? If not, what changes need to be made?

No. We should expect elected officials to meet a higher ethical standard, but Illinois still relies too heavily on politicians policing politicians.

I would strengthen the independence of the Legislative Inspector General, require greater public disclosure of findings, and make retaliation against employees who report misconduct a serious offense. Ethics enforcement should not depend on legislative leaders protecting their own members.

I also believe campaign money is part of the ethics problem. I would support much tighter limits on money flowing directly to legislative candidates from PACs, unions, corporations and other organizations, with full and timely disclosure of who is paying for independent political spending. Candidates should have to defend their records and ideas, not simply overwhelm voters with money supplied by outside interests.

Current federal constitutional law limits how far states can restrict independent political spending, but Illinois should go as far as legally possible to reduce the influence of organized money and make its sources transparent.

What personal qualifications do you bring that would make you an effective legislator?

I fix things. That has been the common theme through my time as a legislative aide, a sailor on submarines and now as an alderman here in Warrenville.

I tend to look at how systems work together, notice when something is not working and then figure out how to fix it. I have learned that government problems are rarely solved by slogans. You have to understand the problem, work with people and follow through.

I do not need the praise, awards or attention. I care about whether the job gets done and whether the people I represent are better off because of it.