Eric Anderson: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Eric Anderson

City: Fox River Grove

Office sought: Village Trustee

Age: 30

Family: Brittany (Wife), Cooper (dog)

Occupation: Financial Advisor at Benjamin F. Edwards & Co.

Education: BS Advertising, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Civic involvement:

Previous elected offices held: None

Incumbent? If yes, when were you first elected? N/A

Website: N/A

Facebook: facebook.com/eric.anderson.1048554

Twitter: @elanderson82

Issue questions

What are the most important issues facing your community and how do you intend to address them?

Taxation is a major issue. I've only lived here since March 2017 and have seen many retirees and valuable community members leave for greener pasture: it's simply hard to justify staying here when you don't have kids in school. I don't aim to be George H.W. Bush with a "read my lips" type statement, as I won't promise to only lower taxes if that hurts us long term, but I certainly aim to bring our village budget as well as our other taxing districts' budgets to a far more reasonable level. For some perspective on just how bad our taxes are: my property taxes are 3.6% of the purchase price of my home two years ago. That means I will pay the state the entire value of my home in under 28 years, before I would even pay off my 30-year mortgage. If I were to live in my home until 85, I would have paid the state the value of my home twice - and that's assuming taxes were to never increase. That isn't just money lost to taxpayers either, it's money drained from the local economy.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

I want to live in Fox River Grove as long as I can: being 30, I'd like to spend my working years here, start a family, and retire here: but I need to make sure that makes economic sense. It's becoming more and more clear every year that Illinois has been kicking the can down the road for far too long, and I intend to make sure my children don't have to live with my shortsighted mistakes.

I believe that my financial background will be especially helpful as we continue working through our downtown redevelopment. In many cases, I've seen developers come to smaller municipalities like ours with grand promises, get fantastic deals through TIF districts and other tax subsidies, and eventually leave them high and dry with nothing to show for it: except for a heck of an unpaid bill. I will aim to make sure we do not leave FRG exposed with any deals we make and assure the companies pay their fair share of developments as well.

Describe your leadership style and explain how you think that will be effective in producing actions and decisions with your village board or city council.

I believe that leading by example is the most effective method. I have learned (especially through the current political climate) that I aim to keep calm, avoid personal attacks, and simply analyze the situation from as many perspectives as possible. By carefully listening to and respecting the opinions of the other board members, I believe they will see that I value them and their opinions: which is the only way to have a productive discussion.

How would you describe the condition of your community's budget, and what are the most important specific actions the town should take to assure providing the level of services people want?

I believe the Fox River Grove Village Board has done a great job handling what is in their power. The village budget has been balanced for years, and the village portion is only about 7% of our total property tax burden (and the other 93% is where substantive changes need to happen to stop our population loss, which is a separate discussion).

To my knowledge, our residents are very happy with the conditions of roads, parks, sewers, and the maintenance of each, which is something we will certainly aim to keep at a high level.

What's one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

Given my financial background, I would aim to work with our village administrator to make sure our money is working as hard as possible. I am not sure from the outside how we are legally allowed to invest the assets we hold in reserves, but I want to make sure we are maximizing our returns while assuring we don't subject our money to unnecessary risk. From my understanding, we have several projects we know we will need to fund within 20 years (sewer upgrades, for example) and I would like to make sure we are making the money we already have work as hard as possible, rather than asking the hard workers of this area to pay more when that bill comes due.