Tryon, Kaempfe tackle sacred budget cows

Illinois' budget deficit projected to rise to $15 billion next year is eliciting creative solutions from every quarter, and the 64th state House District, where incumbent Mike Tryon is facing re-election, is no exception.

The 64th District includes all or part of Algonquin, Barrington Hills, Cary, Crystal Lake, For River Grove, Huntley and Lake in the Hills.

Tryon, a three-term legislator and chairman of the McHenry County Republican Party, thinks his GOP colleague and governor candidate Bill Brady is “naive to propose a 10-percent, across-the-board cut in state spending.

“It's naive to think you could go into every department and say, ‘We're going to do 10 percent on everybody' because it just doesn't work, Tryon said.

Instead, Tryon proposes measures that would affect a number of “sacred cows, such as: privatization of some of Illinois' prisons, further cuts to education, leasing out portions of the tollway to the state pension system, taxing pension income and raising the retirement age for some public workers.

“If we're having an economic contraction, I don't think any part of state government is exempt, Tryon said.

Tryon says Medicaid reform, consolidating some state services, rescinding recent raises for state workers and reducing agency budgets by 4 percent (on a line-by-line basis) would save another $3 billion.

Tryon's challenger in the 64th District, Democrat Robert Kaempfe, is similarly blunt when it comes to the budget.

“The state is spending money like a drunken sailor, Kaempfe said.

Like his opponent, Kaempfe supports measures likely to provoke backlash, including earmark reform and closing the James R. Thompson Center, which houses state government offices in downtown Chicago.

Of the Thompson Center, Kaempfe says, “Either make Chicago the capital, or have all the stuff done in the state capital like 49 other states do.

As for earmark reform, Kaempfe criticized Tryon for securing more than $1 million in funding for local infrastructure projects in 2009.

“How can the legislators be so irresponsible to take that money? Kaempfe said. “He's giving big-time money to taxing bodies, for crying out loud.

Much of the money Kaempfe is referring to, though, funded road improvements in Tryon's district and was not simply pocketed by towns and townships for general expenses, as Kaempfe seems to suggest.

But for Kaempfe, the earmarks are just one example of the “waste that could be rooted out by conducting a comprehensive audit of the state budget an idea backed by many Republican lawmakers.

At least one issue unites Tryon and Kaempfe: their stated opposition to a tax increase until something is done about spending.

In a Daily Herald questionnaire, Tryon writes, “How could I possibly justify voting for an income tax increase on families who have lost 8 percent of their wages to help fund these irresponsible state spending practices?