Robert A. Garrett: Candidate Profile

Note: Answers provided have not been edited for grammar, misspellings or typos. In some instances, candidate claims that could not be immediately verified have been omitted. Jump to:BioKey IssuesQA Bio City: SchaumburgWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: Schaumburg Village boardAge: 28Family: Single, Two Sisters, three NiecesOccupation: International Account ExecutiveEducation: College of Dupage Associates degree 2002Civic involvement: Candidate did not respond.Elected offices held: NoneHave you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime? If yes, please explain: Yes, Underage Consumption of Alcohol when I was 20 years old and 9 months at a college in Southern Illinois. I received court supervision and the charges were dismissed.Candidate's Key Issues Key Issue 1 Eliminating the Schaumburg Property TaxKey Issue 2 Increasing Transparency and Accountability to Village Government.Key Issue 3 Increasing quality of core Government Services, while decreasing wasteful spending.Questions Answers What is your opinion of Schaumburg's municipal property tax? Do you support immediate repeal, an increase in the tax or something in between?My opinion of the Schaumburg Property is it was irresponsible and an undue burden on the Schaumburg tax payers. I support an immediate repeal. We cannot raise taxes in a recession and now with the state income tax Schaumburg residents are hurting and we need to provide relief to hard working families. When you tax a person#146;s home, you leave them with no options. When you tax an item like cigarettes or increase sales taxes, people can limit their burden by limiting their spending, which is what the Village of Schaumburg should have done, limit spending. When you tax a person#146;s home, they have no way to cut that expense, short of moving, which is not possible in this economy.How is the village's decades-old model of reliance on commercial development and retail sales taxes for revenue weathering the current economic downturn? Do the vulnerabilities revealed by the recession justify a major overhaul of that model?I believe the current model of commercial development and retail sales taxes are viable. Seeing that the worst of the recession is hopefully behind us and the Village is on better financial footing than some surrounding communities. I believe the Village of Schaumburg never had a revenue problem, we just have had a spending problem. If we can have a Village that gets serious about making sure Schaumburg Tax Payers are getting a better bang for their buck and cutting out ridiculous projects that they have no business starting in the first place, the village would be financially stronger with less of a burden on tax payers.What is your attitude towards the village's ownership of the Schaumburg Renaissance Hotel Convention Center, Alexian Field and the Schaumburg Regional Airport? Should these properties be privatized? Why or why not?First let me start by saying the Village of Schaumburg should never have built the convention center. The VOS has no business building hotels, baseball stadiums or owning Air Ports. I do understand that the convention center is a quagmire that is going to need to be dealt with, it is losing millions of dollars a year, with no hope insight. The Baseball Stadium is currently over a million dollars in debt to the Village of Schaumburg, this is inexcusable. The city of Joliet, filed notice against their baseball team when the back paid rent hit $200,000, why did the village of Schaumburg not do anything until it hit one million dollars? This is inexcusable. Also the airport is owned by the park district, but is utilized by so few. In my mind, a park district should be open to everyone to enjoy, not just a place for rich pilots to store their toys. I am for a logical dismissal of these properties, true this might not be the best market to sell, but I do not believe it is the villages role to be entrepreneurs.Should Schaumburg continue to run Septemberfest and other special events? Do you support the work of the cultural services department and the village#146;s continued operation of the Prairie Center for the Arts and the Trickster Gallery?The Village of Schaumburg should continue to run September fest, it is cost neutral I support any special events that do not cost the tax payers money. I enjoy September fest myself and I believe that we need events to continue building a sense of Community. As for cultural service department, I did not know about the existence of Trickster Gallery until very recently and I have a feeling that most Schaumburg Taxpayers don#146;t know about it as well. In these economic times, when families are deciding to pay their property tax bill or food on the table, these lavish expenses need to be cut. If there was a great demand for art galleries in Schaumburg the private sector would have opened one. We should not be maintaining these specialized areas which fill no essential role in the community and add an undue burden onto the tax payers.What significant infrastructure improvements, if any, should the village be pursuing? Why?I am a very strong support of a good infrastructure. I try to support good public transportation options whenever I can. With that being said in this economy we are not able to fund any major projects like the STAR line. I do currently agree with the need to add an exit/entrance ramp for Meacham road off of 90, provided it is done in a financially competent way.