Arellano, Bishop, Yager spar for Illinois 37th Senate District GOP nomination

DIXON — Voters throughout the Sauk Valley will head to the polls Tuesday, March 19, 2024, for Illinois’ primary election.

Polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. for voters to choose their parties’ nominees in federal, state and local races in a leadup to the Nov. 5 General Election.

In Illinois Senate District 37 – which includes all of Whiteside and Lee counties, most of Bureau County and portions of DeKalb, Ogle, Rock Island and La Salle counties – Republicans will vote in a three-way race to choose a nominee aiming to fill the seat currently occupied by state Rep. Win Stoller.

Stoller, R-Germantown Hills, has represented the 37th District since 2020, but decided not to seek a third term.

Candidates running in the Republican primary for that seat are Li Arellano Jr. of Dixon, who in May completed eight years of service as Dixon’s mayor; Chris Bishop of Dixon, a former teacher and wrestling coach, who now is a grain marketing representative for AgPerspective, and is in his second term as a Dixon city councilman; and Tim Yager of Geneseo, who worked in the telecom industry and is now a farmer and a member of the Henry County Board.

Here is a recap of some of the issues candidates addressed at a Feb. 22 forum and in questionnaires from Shaw Local News Network.

Immigration

Arellano has said one of the top issues facing the district includes keeping illegal immigrants “from being shipped by Chicago and our State on behalf of Chicago to small towns and rural communities. The public is livid about this issue.”

He said that when President Joe Biden signed executive orders on his first day in office ordering the halt to continued construction of the border wall, his words signaled that the border was open; millions then started the perilous journey.

“On February 12, 2024, the Washington Post reported that on Joe Biden’s first day in office he ordered a pause in arrests and deportations,” Arellano said. “Word quickly spread around the world that illegal immigrants into the USA would be briefly detained, given aid that many American’s don’t receive from our government, and then released with court appearances scheduled many years from when they entered.”

Bishop said legal immigrants should be helped to adapt to American society through approved channels, and the State of Illinois should play a role in that process.

“The Illinois State Senate should look to the federal government to uphold and enforce the laws that are in place regarding illegal immigrants,” Bishop said.

Of immigration, Yager said at the Feb. 22 candidate forum, “Clearly, we have a problem in the nation and in the state of Illinois. It’s the federal government’s responsibility to secure the border and they’ve let us down. And I think that’s why Trump is gaining such momentum is because he wants to secure the border and that’s what we need. I want to go to Springfield to end the sanctuary city status of Chicago and the sanctuary status for the entire state of Illinois.”

Taxation

The candidates also have responded to questions about overtaxation concerns.

“The budget is the biggest problem,” Bishop said. “We are spending more than what we have. Our deficit for the upcoming budget season is projected to be over $700 million. Until we fix the spending problem in Illinois, our elevated taxes will continue.”

Arellano said the reason Illinois has passed four state income tax increases since 2010 and 22 taxes overall in that time period is that Illinois Democrats have an insatiable appetite for radically higher spending.

“Every one of those state income taxes was sold to the people that if it was passed, the new tax revenue would ‘fix our budget problems once and for all,’” Arellano said. “But every single time the new revenue was used by legislative Democrats to increase state spending.”

“We’e made it inhospitable for people to live in Illinois,” Yager said, adding that the state needs to do what it can to keep people living here because people who live here pay taxes. “We lost 43,000 people people last year in the state of Illinois. Those 43,000 people paid taxes.”

Government efficiency

SLNN asked candidates, through questionnaires, “What are three things the state legislature could do to promote better fiscal responsibility within state government?”

Bishop’s response: 1. Find inefficiencies and work together to correct them. 2. Prioritize items in the budget, focusing on necessities before wants. 3. Bring all sides to the table to discuss and plan pension solutions.

Arellano: 1. Stop the addiction to radical increases in state spending that is so much more than the growth of average household budgets. Stop allowing bills to pass regardless of the fact that most have no cost projections. Ask yourself, how can Florida and Texas have no state income tax but Illinois has the highest or second highest overall tax burden in the nation? What do we get in state services that residents of Florida and Texas don’t get from their states? The answer is nothing. 2. Adopt and execute a serious debt repayment plan in Illinois. 3. Pass true ethics reform. Illinois is rated as the most corrupt state behind only Louisiana. That has massive financial costs – the corruption tax was very real in Dixon, and it is very real in Illinois.

Yager did not submit responses to the questionnaire.

Ogle County has coroner’s contest, 1% sales tax vote on ballot

In Ogle County, Republicans will decide whether Chad Horner or Christie Cox will be their nominee for the Ogle County coroner seat that will become vacant when current Coroner Lou Finch’s term ends this year.

Ogle County voters also will decide whether school districts will get funding from a new proposed 1% sales tax. The language on Ogle County’s ballots would allow schools to use the money for infrastructure-related expenses, school resource officers and mental health professionals.

The tax would go on everything in the municipal and county tax base, except for cars, trucks, ATVs, boats, RVs, mobile homes, unprepared food, drugs including over-the-counter and vitamins, farm equipment and parts, farm inputs, services and anything not currently taxed.

The question on the ballot will read: “Shall a retailers’ occupation tax and a service occupation tax (commonly referred to as a sales tax) be imposed in the County of Ogle, Illinois, at a rate of 1% to be used exclusively for school facility purposes, school resource officers and mental health professionals?”

A “yes” vote means a 1% sales tax will go into effect July 1 across Ogle County. The revenue will be distributed on a per-pupil basis among school districts who have Ogle County children enrolled as students.

A “no” vote means the tax will not go into effect.

If passed, revenue from the 1% sales tax would go to the following school districts: Oregon, Forrestville Valley, Polo, Kings, Creston, Rochelle Township High School, Rochelle Elementary, Meridian, Byron, Eswood, Eastland, Hiawatha, Dixon and Ashton-Franklin Center.

Eastland, Hiawatha, Dixon and Ashton-Franklin Center school districts primarily are located outside Ogle County but still will receive a portion of the funds because they have students enrolled who reside in Ogle County.

Each district will receive a portion of the sales tax revenue equal to the percentage of Ogle County’s total student population enrolled in that district.