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Bill Roth, a candidate for Kane County Board District 12 in the March primary election, answered these questions from the Shaw Local News Network.
Full Name: Bill Roth
What office are you seeking? Kane County Board District 12
What public offices, if any, have you previously held? Kane County Board District 12
City: St. Charles
Occupation: Retired
Campaign website: https://rothforkane.com/
In light of the increasing influx of migrants to Illinois, how do you propose the county should address the challenges?
The issue is that there is an extreme number of the migrants coming over the border because currently we do not have a working Immigration policy. That is the job of the Federal government not Kane County. Also, our state and the city are encouraging the migrants to come to Chicago and Illinois. No process is in place to manage the flow and the costs are out control.
We as a County should not be paying for this disaster in the making. Our County hands are currently tied because the State of Illinois declared that they are a sanctuary State. Therefore we cannot pass any law to control what is happening in the state to prevent the migrants from migrating to Kane County. Last month, one of our Republicans on the County Board working with our State Attorney’s create a Proclamation declaring that the Federal government take action and close the Southern border and for the State and the city of Chicago to rescind their sanctuary status. There is a huge cost associated with accepting migrants currently and our County does not have any money to pay for this happening.
Unfortunately, our County Chairperson refused to put the proclamation on the agenda in February at the County Board meeting and when a motion was proposed to add it to the March agenda it was a tie vote and the Chairperson withheld her vote to break the tie and therefore the Motion failed.
What are the top issues facing your county and what would you like to do to address those issues?
1. High Crime – We still have too much crime in Kane County and we need to continue support our Police forces reduce the amount of crime occurring.
2. Illegal Migrants – We need to get to continue to demand our state government rescind their current sanctuary state in order to cut down on the number of migrants continuing to come to IL.
3. Unfunded mandates from our state representatives – We need to start pushing back on our state representatives who are passing new bills that effect our county but do not provide the funding necessary to pay for increased expenses.
Should counties do more to expand access to county government?
Not sure what you mean by “Expand Access”. I do believe that County need to provide better communication to the voters in the county especially on the services that the county provides. Communication is one of my issues that I ran on in 2022 and in the last 14 months that I have been in office working to improve the County communication out to our voters.
What challenges is the region facing in terms of attracting business and tourism?
Our County has done very little up to the present time in attracting business and tourism. We are competing in a very tight job market in trying to attract jobs to Kane County. We are just starting to develop an Economic Development Team that help us attract the type of companies that we want in the county.
What would you push for as a member of county government to boost local businesses?
Support our Economic Development Team in helping attract new business.
Should government employees and officials be allowed to sign nondisclosure agreements with private businesses?
The County needs to implement a process allowing for non-disclosure agreements only when absolutely necessary so that the process is not abused. I believe they should be an exception and not the norm.
Do you think there is a local crime problem? If so, what needs to be done about it?
I believe we still have a higher crime rate then we should. We need to support our police officers so they can continue to do their job
What local road and bridge projects should be a priority to get done in the county?
At this time our County Department of Transportation is doing a great job setting and managing construction priorities and we need to continue to support them.
Do you support the Illinois gun ban? Why or why not?
No, I do not support the IL gun ban. We need to do a better job in enforcing our current laws. I use as an example that Chicago have some of the strictest laws in the US but it still has one of the highest rate of killings in the country.
What is your opinion of the role of tax incentives in economic development and business growth? Should tax incentives be offered to corporations to entice them to plant roots in local communities? Why or why not?
I believe that we are sometime are overly dependent on using tax incentives. We need to have an environment that attract new business and not have to offer them incentives to come to our County.
How would you classify the state of public health in your county? Do you believe access to affordable healthcare is an issue? Why or why not? If you believe it’s an issue, what ideas do you have to remedy it?
We are currently doing a decent job in Kane County in supporting our Public Health department. We need to continue to develop the necessary programs to support our needs in the County, especially those services that are supporting the low economical end of our voters in a cost effective way