Affordability, safety among issues in race for Illinois House seat in 84th District

Democrat Saba Haider and Republican Brian Scopa are running for state representative in the 84th District in the Nov. 3 election.

The district’s current state representative, Oswego Democrat Stephanie Kifowit, did not run for reelection.

Haider, 42, of Aurora, said voters in the district are concerned about affordability, funding public schools and ensuring safe communities.

“With regards to affordability, it’s everything, including taxes and making sure everyday things for people are affordable,” she said. “Rents are high, our grocery bills are skyrocketing as well as gas and all of these are affecting their bottom line.”

Haider said the school issue is about “making sure the public schools are fully funded.”

“We want that the state takes some responsibility so that the pressure is off the folks in our community so their property taxes don’t increase and it’s the state that needs to take some responsibility for taking the pressure off the residents,” she said.

If elected, Haider said her goals include protecting healthcare, funding food pantries, improving mental health care and providing more accessibility as a candidate.

“I, of course, want to address the concerns of my constituents in regards to affordability, schools and safety, but I also want to protect healthcare,” she said. “Right now, so many of the residents are affected by the Medicaid cuts and folks are really hurting.”

She said residents are concerned about SNAP benefits, “and for a lot of the folks in our communities that is a big priority and I want to make sure we are funding our local pantries,” Haider said.

She said it is also important to fund access to mental health care and that for her, “It’s really important to be truly present in our communities.”

“I want to be out, be present, listen to the voters and the constituents of District 84. I’m only as good of an elected official as I am truly representing the concerns of the people of my district,” she said.

Scopa, 48, of Naperville, said voters are talking about affordability, safety and schools.

“Affordability is a big one. Property taxes are killing people and the rate of increase is an issue,” Scopa said. “Gas taxes are also a huge one — that’s also a big part of it and that also adds to transportation costs and the toll hikes are hitting people and that trickles down into grocery costs and hitting things across the region.”

Safety is an issue, Scopa said, “as people are telling me they don’t want to go to the city anymore. People used to enjoy going into Chicago to the restaurants and a night on the town and now they won’t do it.”

The school issue “is about parents being in charge of their children’s education.”

“They want to know the curriculum and what the kids are being taught and not being indoctrinated politically,” he said. “They want to be partners and feel that school districts and teachers’ unions are icing them out of that.”

If elected, Scopa said he wants to work on increasing transparency regarding the budget, grow the Illinois economy and focus on accountability with school funding.

“We need to increase transparency. Our budget has gone up 40% over the last eight years and I don’t think we’re getting a 40% better product for that,” Scopa said. “As far as the budget goes, this should all be online. It should all be searchable. We can do a lot better job of tracking our funds and seeing where our money is going.”

He said Illinois needs to grow its economy “so we can pay our own unfunded pensions.”

“We are losing high-level citizens and businesses like Boeing, and we’re driving off the very elements of the economy that would fund our $100 billion unfunded pension liability. We need to make it more business-friendly,” he said.

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.