Who got more votes, has more expertise?

If you wonder why people are angry enough to elect Donald Trump as our President of the United States and why newspapers are held in such contempt by many, just look at the Daily Herald's sensational headline and article regarding budget policies.

We are currently deciding how to allocate $250 million of your money in 2018 to run all of Kane County, and the democratic process is treated like a mud wrestling contest, with irresponsible references like "smack down" and "mutiny."

This is already a difficult and complicated task. It shouldn't be necessary for me to reassert my nonpartisan financial credentials, but these are budget matters, and I've spent a lifetime serving people, with a CPA in Illinois, honors Management Science degree from Duke University, Harvard MBA, 20 years on the Illinois Senate Appropriations Committee, and at one time served 22,000 monthly small business clients through 450 franchised accounting offices. For six years, we have successfully frozen the county property tax levy at 85/100 of one percent for the entire period and reduced county general obligation debt by 65 percent.

I was most recently re-elected with 129,000 votes. On the other hand, the article extensively quoted board member Don Ishmael, Aurora Democratic Party chairman, who has no financial budgetary training or experience, has made it necessary to have a sheriff's deputy at board meetings, and who had the worst attendance at committees of the whole in 2016 of any board member, i.e. two out of 10, despite being paid $25,000 annually for four years with Social Security benefits. Ishmael has not submitted a single proposal to help. Ishmael was elected to his paid position with 108 votes in the 2014 primary and 1,108 votes in the general election.

You and I expect more constructive contributions from every board member.

Chris Lauzen

Kane County Board Chairman