Merry Marwig: Candidate Profile

Back to 20th State House District

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:BioQA Bio City: ChicagoWebsite: Candidate did not respond.Twitter: Candidate did not respond.Facebook: Candidate did not respond.Office sought: 20th State House District Age: 31Family: My husband and I are proud homeowners in the Norwood Park neighborhood of the 41st Ward in the city of Chicago.Occupation: I am currently on leave from my position as chief of staff at a software firm.Education: - M.A in Political Science, Civic Leadership - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign- B.A in International Studies - University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignCivic involvement: I have served on the leadership team for the Fair Allocation in Runway (FAiR) Coalition. This group works with community elected leaders to fairly allocate the flights to O'Hare Airport so that no one neighborhood must bear the burden of this economic engine.Elected offices held: I have never previously held office.Questions Answers What needs to be done structurally to make the legislature more effective? Will you vote for your current legislative leader? What is your position on term limits in general and specifically for legislative leaders? Do you support the ongoing drive for a constitutional amendment on redistricting? What will you do to promote implementation of any changes you recommend?I believe everyone in Springfield, including my opponent, Mike McAuliffe, a 20 year career politician, bears responsibility for our current budget stalemate. I believe the Governor's job is to introduce a balanced budget and the Legislature's job is to pass a balanced budget, and I feel that all sides are more interested in making excuses or blaming the other side than in getting the job done. I am for term limits on all state elected officials, including legislators, legislative leaders and constitutional officers. McAuliffe has been in office for 20 years and I hear from voters every day at their doors that they think that he has been in office for way too long. I support any efforts that will take the redistricting process out of the hands of politicians and make it more open and participatory for the public. HJRCA 58 has protections that insulate the process from the involvement of legislators and the Governor and provisions for 15 public hearings with open public testimony.I believe our community deserves to be represented by someone who truly listens to them and is willing to fight for them. Mike McAuliffe does not listen to our community on issues like freezing property taxes and keeping our children safe, and instead frequently chooses not to vote at all. He voted present or refused to vote at all on nearly 100 important bills in the last year. Mike McAuliffe has taken a backseat when our community needs a leader more than ever.Would you vote for an increase in state income taxes or sales taxes? Would you vote for new taxes, such as on services? What is your position on a graduated income tax?I am opposed to all tax increases on middle-class families and seniors. This includes a flat income tax increase, any "progressive" tax that increases taxes on the middle class, property tax increases, taxes on retirement income, sales tax increases, service taxes, or any other tax that would increase the tax burden on working families and seniors in my district.I believe the state needs to take a balanced approach to the solving the budget crisis, and that any new revenue would need to be paired with spending decreases. I have spent months walking door-to-door in my district, and many families and seniors have told me that they are very concerned about being able to continue to afford to live in this area, and that high taxes are already causing them to have difficulty making ends meet. I only support taxing the very wealthy, millionaires and billionaires, who can afford to pay more. My opponent voted against HJRCA 26, which would have created a 3% surcharge on income over $1 million. I would support that measure, as well as closing corporate tax loopholes.What changes, if any, do you support in education and education funding in Illinois? Please be specific.I support changing the state's school funding formula to provide excellent educational opportunities for all children throughout the state, but I would not vote for any legislation that would reduce funding for schools in my district. This is not an easy issue to tackle, and I believe we will need teachers, parents, administrators and local school board members to work together to achieve this goal. I believe achieving this goal would be made easier by the passage of HJRCA 26, legislation that would provide more money to schools by imposing a 3% surcharge on income over $1 million. Despite the district voting in favor of a nonbinding version of this initiative when it was on the ballot two years ago, my opponent voted no to this increased funding for education and also refused to vote for any education budget at all in 2015.On Illinois' budget, specifically, where do you believe cuts need to be made?There are some relatively easy cuts that can be made in order to take the first steps towards balancing the budget. The offices of the state treasurer and comptroller should be consolidated, duplicative services provided by separate agencies should be identified and consolidated, pay for part-time boards and commissions should be eliminated, the use of state planes and vehicles should be reduced as much as possible, unnecessary overtime should be eliminated and pay should be cut by 10 percent for state elected officials.What approach do you support toward fixing the public pension systems?I believe that the state will only be able to find a solution to this issue if all the affected groups, including representatives for unions and for taxpayers, work together. This is not a problem that is going to be solved overnight, as it took many years of the state not contributing enough to the funds to get to the huge unfunded pension liability we have today. I will not take a pension if elected, as I believe that pensions should be reserved for those who have truly earned them and not politicians.What other issues, if any, are important to you as a candidate for this office?My top priority is standing up for middle-class families by freezing property taxes and holding the line on other taxes on the middle class. Maintaining and improving the quality of life for our area is also important. We need to provide more funding for public safety, reduce airplane noise and pollution, and increase the areas that qualify for airport noise abatement insulation and windows. I want to use my business experience to bring the focus back in Illinois on supporting small businesses that create good-paying jobs, instead of giving handouts to corporations that routinely move jobs out of Illinois.Please name one current leader who most inspires you.A personal leader that inspired me to work hard to meet my goals was my high school music teacher, Mark Bettcher.What is the biggest lesson you learned at home growing up?I grew up in a working class family and I learned to work very hard to make a better future for myself and my community.If life gave you one do-over, what would you spend it on?Candidate did not respond.What was your favorite subject in school and how did it help you in later life?Math was my favorite subject, it has been helpful in my business career and will be extremely helpful when I am a legislator as well.If you could give your children only one piece of advice, what would it be?To get involved in our community as much as possible. We need everyone to work together in order to improve our state and our country.