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ENDORSEMENTS

National Taxpayers United of Illinois

Illinois Fully Informed Jury Association

American Rights Movement

JULIE FOX

Issues

Action Items    Press    Statement of Principles

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The state budget in Illinois has increased from $36 billion to $52 billion in the past four years. This is a 44% increase, over four times the rate of inflation. Irresponsible spending by our state government has resulted in a four percent shortfall. On June 11, the Illinois General Assembly passed the 2003 state budget, increasing the budget once again, to $54 billion. The "solution" to the budget shortfall was to increase taxes $650 million, with a $250 million income tax increase on Illinois businesses and a $400 million increase in taxes on consumers.

Rather than focus on increasing taxes, as Comptroller I would focus on reducing wasteful spending. In a time when our economy is already suffering, increasing taxes would only further cut into the pocketbooks of our Illinois residents, and ultimately cause more harm to the economy

As individuals we could cut our own personal spending by four percent without greatly sacrificing our lifestyles. Many companies have in the past, and are once again cutting into their spending by four percent or more, in order to meet their bottom lines. Private corporations like United Airlines, Lucent, and Motorola cut their workforces by 20 percent in response to the latest recession. As individuals and as businesses operating in the private sector, we have no choice but to do this when the economy weakens. There is no reason why government can't do the same. We could easily cut the state budget by well over four percent without sacrificing key services.

Some ways in which we can do this are:

1. Eliminate the "Member Initiative" Fund, which is nothing but blatant pork barrel spending. This is perhaps the worst waste of our taxpayers' dollars that exists in Illinois, providing such things as statues in our state legislators' districts. Eliminating this fund would save Illinois residents $116 million.
2. Eliminate the office of State Comptroller. Over 40 states have already consolidated the functions of State Comptroller and State Treasurer. By eliminating the office of State Comptroller, we would cut $60 million from the state budget.
3. Abolish the Dept. of Commerce and Community Affairs - this is a $113 million department responsible mainly for disbursing funds to local businesses, which are essentially welfare payments to politically connected business firms.
4. Abolish the redundant Dept. of State Police - the state police duplicate the job of local and county police forces. Illinois residents would be no less safe if we got rid of the State Police, and the state would save $370 million.
5. Repeal the law requiring the state to pay for insurance for auxiliary employees at state universities. The state currently pays for insurance for over 4,000 full-time equivalent employees in state university bookstores, dormitories, restaurants and other businesses, to the tune of $25 million each year.
6. End the $40 million yearly subsidies to the horse-racing industry.
7. Eliminate funding for arts and entertainment, which would save taxpayers approximately $145 million.
8. Release all those charged with non-violent drug crimes from prisons. This would save taxpayers millions of dollars per year and free-up prison space for real criminals.

Press

Comptroller hopefuls differ on 'rainy day fund'

By Teresa Mask Daily Herald Staff Writer

Posted on October 30, 2002

Thomas Jefferson Ramsdell is soliciting votes by planting a tree in every county in Illinois, hoping to garner local media attention and spread the word about his campaign.

The grass-roots effort doesn't require big bucks for commercials and glossy campaign brochures about his bid to become state comptroller.

"It's been a long road," he said in his quest for name recognition. "I'm not a rich man and I'm not a politician."

But the 35-year-old litigator is a self-admitted penny pincher, which he says will come in handy as comptroller, the person responsible for the state's checkbook.

Ramsdell, a Wilmette Republican, is vying for the post now held by Chicago Democrat Dan Hynes, whose incumbency and television commercials make him the most visible of the candidates.

Julie Fox of West Dundee is the Libertarian challenger. Her party has spent about $50,000 paying workers to circulate petitions just to get enough signatures for the party to run a full slate of candidates on the Nov. 5 ballot. That left limited funds for commercials and other publicity.

So Fox said she's doing it the old-fashioned way. She's walking the streets. And everywhere she goes she's touting her profession - certified public accountant - as her biggest asset in this election.

"What makes more sense than an accountant running for a finance position?" she asked. "My opponents are both lawyers. And planting trees around the state doesn't really have much to do with finance."

Hynes, a 34-year-old former health care attorney, is seeking his second term to the statewide office responsible for paying the state's bills and mailing tax refund checks. The office also oversees cemetery care and regulates funeral homes.

The comptroller is paid about $115,235 a year and has a four-year term.

It's not the most glamorous of the state's elected posts, but the candidates say taxpayers should pay close attention to it to see how their tax dollars are being spent.

Hynes' challengers charge wasteful spending during his term as comptroller. Each has different ideas of how to change the budget.

Hynes acknowledges the state has let its overall spending get out of control. He says it's because the two estimating panels - the Bureau of the Budget and the Economic Fiscal Commission - aren't bringing in accurate budget projections. His plan is to add those people to a council geared toward more accuracy in budgeting.

"Not only have we spent every penny that we've taken in over the last five years, but we've spent more than we've taken in," Hynes said.

He calls it a "shell game" the way the government has been pushing liabilities from one year to the next. "We've spent too much money and failed to save for a rainy day," Hynes said.

That's why he's seeking annual funding for the rainy day fund, which is the centerpiece of his campaign. He said Illinois needs a safety net in case it finds itself in a budget crunch again as it does today. He wants 1 percent, or about $225 million a year, of the budget to go to the fund. The goal is for the fund to reach about $1.2 billion, or 3 percent to 5 percent of the budget, the standard experts say is adequate for a savings plan.

His opponents don't agree with his plans for long-range budget decisions.

Ramsdell says the fund is a cheap political excuse for fiscal planning. He said there are no excess tax dollars, so the fund essentially would be a hidden tax increase. "The rainy day fund is being drained faster than you could raise an umbrella," he said. He points to two different occasions in which the fund - with about $225 million - was used to pay outstanding bills.

Ramsdell said the best solution is to sell the state's outstanding debt to an outside agency, which could bring in more money for needed programs such as Medicaid, the medical program for poor residents. It's estimated the state currently has about $1.2 billion in uncollected debt, including child support payments and student loans.

Ramsdell said he wants to use the office to crack down on fraud and duplication services. For instance, he wants to track whether services actually are being completed before vendors are paid and keep a better eye on projects that suddenly double or triple after the bid price has been accepted.

He also wants to encourage the use of technology to send out bills and receive payments, thus eliminating the loads of paper trickling through the office.

"It wastes trees, ruins the environment," Ramsdell said. "Invoices are put together on a computer system. We can save the printing and transmit electronically."

And he said Hynes already should be getting accurate budget projections from his staff and shouldn't have to form the council.

Fox, 44, is known in the Western suburbs for co-founding the Coalition for Accountability in Public Education, which is the group that defeated four tax referendum increases for Dundee Township Area Unit District 300 between 1997 and 1999.

She said if elected comptroller, her priority will be to pay off debt.

The state owes about $14.4 billion in bond debt and another $16 billion in liabilities such as pension plans.

"I'm not completely against the rainy day fund," she said. "There is no reason you can't do both, pay off state debt and save for the future."

Fox wants to put an end to what she calls runaway spending. "Our state finances are a mess because politicians, rather than accountants, are managing the state's budget," she said.

She said the state misleads the public by claiming it has to cut funding for the handicapped and mentally ill, when it wastes money on so many other non-necessities.

As comptroller, Fox said she'd veto payments on frivolous expenses. She said there is precedence for vetoing since the state's first comptroller did so. He held up payments for lottery tickets because they weren't put out to bid, she said.

"Even if I'm overridden, the point is to bring it to taxpayers' attention - this is what your money's being spent on," she said. "I don't think people realize the extent to which tax dollars are wasted."

Fox said she'd put an end to "corporate welfare," the idea of supporting private businesses with state money. She also wants to stop so-called member initiatives, through which individuals get expensive "favors" at taxpayers expense.

Hynes said he is proud of freezing member initiative "pork" payments in an effort to make lawmakers accountable for how they were spending money. Hynes stopped cutting checks for the projects for a month earlier this year in an effort to try to get the state to spend within its means.

But both Fox and Ramsdell say all those efforts won't matter if Hynes abandons the post and seeks a higher office after he's elected. Both charge that he is using this as a stepping stone to higher office.

Hynes has not ruled out seeking another office. He says if another opportunity comes up he may consider it.

Stop giving away your liberty - The Courier News

[October 3, 2002]

The Courier News

Guest Commentary

On Sept. 15, my niece attended an exotic pet show at Lee Watson's Crosswinds Farm in Streamwood. It was raided by federal agents, who locked down the event and held each and every person there.

No one was allowed out of the building in which the show was held until their belongings were searched. Local police searched cars for everything from exotic pets to drugs to improper child seating.

The intent was allegedly to crack down on infractions of laws pertaining to the exotic pet trade. Instead of coming into the facility and checking that vendors were in compliance with the law, local and federal agents of the government terrorized individuals, innocent spectators as well as vendors, and bastardized their constitutional rights in the process.

Where does it end? Do we still retain any constitutional rights in this country? I was shocked and appalled to hear about this. We're referring to a pet show, not terrorist activity. Do these people deserve to be treated this way simply because they attended a pet show?

When will we come to our senses? Ever since the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11 of last year, we have given free rein to government to strip away our freedoms in the name of security, and been completely blind to the effects it will have on us.

Please think long and hard about the words Benjamin Franklin, one of our founding fathers and a man whom many consider to be one of great wisdom, spoke: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Think about it. Ponder it long and hard. One can't take it too seriously. We forget how important it is until it affects us. Unfortunately, when it affects you, it may be way too late for anyone to do anything about it, because you didn't heed the words of warning the first time, or the second time, or the third or 10th time they were uttered.

You chose to ignore the importance of liberty. When you do that, it will come back to bite you. It may not be today, or tomorrow, but it will happen someday, I guarantee you, and then it will be too late. All your allies will already be snatched up by the arm of the "law" as you have chosen to let it be.

I have chosen to spend my time defending these rights, and working for the only party that truly believes in them, the Libertarian Party.

Although individuals may differ, at the core there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans anymore. No one truly cares about your freedom other than the Libertarian Party.

Quit kidding yourself. Look long and hard at how these parties have defended your freedoms. These are the parties that have allowed police raids on such things as exotic pet shows. These are the parties that give police the right to stop you in your car and search it when you have done nothing wrong. These are the parties that have allowed the erosion of your freedoms.

The only Party that truly cares about your freedom is the Libertarian Party. That is why I give so much of my time and effort to support the Libertarian Party, and you should, too.

On Nov. 5, don't choose to ignore the ballot box because you are disgusted with the system. This time, make a move to change it. If you're tired of the same old thing from government, make a move to change it. Vote for a change on Nov. 5. Vote Libertarian. Let's end the madness and put freedom back into our lives again.

Fox, of West Dundee, is treasurer of the Libertarian Party of Illinois and the Libertarian candidate for state comptroller.

STATE COMPTROLLER FINALLY FOLLOWS LIBERTARIAN OPPONENT'S SUGGESTION

[May 5, 2002]

(EAST DUNDEE, IL) -- On March 29, 2002, Libertarian Party of Illinois (LPI) candidate for State Comptroller Julie Fox challenged her Democratic opponent, incumbent Dan Hynes, to freeze payments for legislative pork. According to today's Chicago Tribune, Hynes has now followed Fox's advice.

"If I were State Comptroller, I would have stopped payment on the pork projects in mid-March," said Fox, a Certified Public Accountant and controller for the U.S. operations of a chemical manufacturing company. "By hesitating the do what needed to be done, Danny Hynes has wasted about $50 million of the taxpayers' money."

Hynes initiated the freeze on payments to the General Assembly's so-called "member initiatives" on April 23. Had Hynes taken action a month earlier when Fox first issued her challenge, the LPI estimates that as much as $50 million could have been saved.

Libertarian Candidate for State Comptroller Julie Fox Challenges Danny Hynes to Stop the Pork

[March 29, 2002]

East Dundee, IL - The Libertarian Party candidate for State Comptroller, Julie Fox of West Dundee has lobbed a grenade into the office of Danny Hynes, the man she is running against.

Fox, a Certified Public Accountant and controller for the US operations of a chemical manufacturing company and a sitting trustee on the Dundee Township Library District Board, says that Hynes should use his constitutional power to review and approve state payments to stop pork from being spent from "unconstitutionally vague line items."

"The power parties say that the state is in a financial bind," Fox said, adding, "but they went ahead and increased our state budget anyway."

"Virtually every candidate for governor argued that the first thing to go from the state budget should be pork barrel spending. "If I were State Comptroller, it would have already stopped," Fox said. "I would have refused to process the payment requests."

There is precedence for refusing to process payments for services representing pork barrel spending. Fox noted that George Lindberg, Illinois' first State Comptroller, refused to pay for the second batch of lottery tickets because then Governor Dan Walker's administration did not ask for competitive bids. "That shut the lottery down and restored integrity to the purchasing process," she said.

When I am elected, the Comptroller's Office will no longer be a revolving door for wild and frivolous spending. We will start a new era of fiscal responsibility in the state," Fox concluded.

The Libertarian Party is Illinois' third largest political party and advocates smaller government, less taxes, and maximum individual liberties. It is running a full slate of statewide candidates in this year's 2002 General Election as well as dozens of candidates for district offices.

The Libertarian Party's Statement of Principles

The members of the Libertarian Party challenge the cult of the omnipotent state and defend the rights of the individual.

We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose.

Governments throughout history have regularly operated on the opposite principle, that the State has the right to dispose of the lives of individuals and the fruits of their labor. Even within the United States, all political parties other than our own grant to government the right to regulate the lives of individuals and seize the fruits of their labor without their consent.

We, on the contrary, deny the right of any government to do these things, and hold that where governments exist, they must not violate the rights of any individual: namely, (1) the right to life -- accordingly we support the prohibition of the initiation of physical force against others; (2) the right to liberty of speech and action -- accordingly we oppose all attempts by government to abridge the freedom of speech and press, as well as government censorship in any form; and (3) the right to property -- accordingly we oppose all government interference with private property, such as confiscation, nationalization, and eminent domain, and support the prohibition of robbery, trespass, fraud, and misrepresentation.

Since governments, when instituted, must not violate individual rights, we oppose all interference by government in the areas of voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. People should not be forced to sacrifice their lives and property for the benefit of others. They should be left free by government to deal with one another as free traders; and the resultant economic system, the only one compatible with the protection of individual rights, is the free market.

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