EDWARDSVILLE – With election day coming next Tuesday for the mid-terms, many people across the country are pushing for high voter turnouts.
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Social media is full of political ads, voter education, and people displaying their early voting stickers for what is forming into an extremely important election cycle for Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike. Many state and local positions are currently up for grabs, and Riverbender.com's voting guide aims to inform those still on the fence about the candidates from whom they are given choices.
Much of this information is public record, but some of the candidates were able to complete questionnaires sent by reporters. Not everyone responded to those, so research into campaign promises, funding and voting records was conducted in order to properly display the candidates and what each represents.
The race for Madison County Treasurer is a battle of two Chrises. Chris Slusser, the Republican incumbent is defending his seat from Democratic challenger Chris Miller who has been doing work with local entrepreneurs as of late after building nearly all of his professional life towards educating entrepreneurs and encouraging entrepreneurship. With Madison County in decent financial standings, it will be up to the treasurer to manage that money.
CHRIS SLUSSER
Here are the questions sent to Slusser by Riverbender.com as well as his answers to them:
1 - Why are you seeking this office?
I was appointed to the Treasurer’s seat in December 2016 to fill a vacancy. I love this job, because I have a passion to do right by other people and serve them with excellence. I get the opportunity to do this every single day in the Treasurer’s Office. I have a great working relationship with my entire staff, as well as all of the other offices within the county. And, while we’ve made some great improvements in the office, including reductions in spending, a major overhaul of the county’s investment portfolio, and diversifying our staff, there is still more work to be done, and I plan to be here to see it through. And, I like to roll up my sleeves and getting involved in every aspect of the work we do in the office. If you’ve paid your property taxes in person on one of our due dates, there’s a good chance that I took your payment at the counter.
2 - What qualifies you for this office?
I am uniquely qualified for the position of treasurer due to my professional background. I spent nearly 9 years as an investment advisor and then as Chief Financial Officer for a commercial real estate firm, before serving as Vice President for a large commercial real estate developer.
The Treasurer is tasked with managing the county’s investment portfolio. In just 19 months, we’ve nearly tripled the returns on the portfolio, adding millions in new revenue. Now I’m advising other county treasurers and taxing districts on how to structure and invest their portfolios. Often treasurers have either an accounting or banking background, but it’s rare to find a county treasurer with an investment background.
My real estate background has been instrumental in bridging the gaps to better service title companies and avoid pitfalls that sometimes occur in the complex real estate tax system that we have here in the State of Illinois.
My management and accounting skills have allowed us to greatly reduce costs in our office, and we’ve implemented new training to allow our staff to do their jobs with excellence.
My 4 years of service on the County Board allowed me to have a familiarity with county government, and I have a very good working relationship with the entire County Board.
3 - How would you describe the current economic climate of Madison County?
The economic climate in Madison County has improved, but like every other county in Illinois, we’re lagging behind our peers in neighboring states, due to poor public policy coming out of Springfield.
4 - What would you to improve it?
As the County Treasurer, I’m limited in what our office is allowed do. We have led by example to reduce spending both years I’ve been in office, we’ve streamlined more services, and we’ve added more than $2 million in annual income to the county’s investment portfolio, which puts less pressure on property taxpayers.
Until our state lawmakers create an environment that is friendlier to business, we will always be at a disadvantage to neighboring states. We need property tax reform, workers’ compensation insurance reform, tort reform and regulatory reform. Until our state lawmakers change the way schools are funded, our property taxes will always be amongst the highest in the nation. And as long as Mike Madigan is the Speaker of the House, we can expect no change in this area, because he makes his living as a property tax appeals lawyer, and thus has no incentive to change the rigged system. We have workers’ compensation rates that are far higher than all of our neighboring states, so until there is meaningful reform, existing businesses will be burdened, and prospective businesses know that their cost of doing business in Illinois is higher than other Midwestern states. We need tort reform to give prospective businesses confidence that they can locate here and still get a fair shake in our courts. And finally, we need to ease fees and regulations that are strangling small and large businesses. In short, we need to ease the burden on our existing businesses and incentivize new businesses to locate here. And we don’t have to do that by picking winners and losers. Instead of creating Enterprise Zones or TIF districts to reward certain businesses, we need to make a level playing field that is fair to all businesses. I’ve been outspoken on these issues and will continue to pressure our local legislators to push through reforms.
5 - What local, state and federal programs would you utilize to better improve the financial standings of Madison County as well as the lives of its residents from that office?
My office has been very proactive in helping taxpayers receive the property tax exemptions that they might be eligible for, whether it be a general homestead exemption, a senior citizen’s exemption, disabled veteran exemption, etc. While the County Assessor is in charge of sending out notices and applying exemptions, we have been diligent to assist them, since we are on the front line, interacting the most with taxpayers in regards to issue with their real estate taxes. Almost every day we come in contact with someone who forgot to renew their exemption, didn’t realize they were eligible, or didn’t realize they weren’t receiving their exemption.
6 - How do you feel about the way money is spent in Madison County?
I think that in recent years, spending has gotten a little more under control at the County level, but there is still plenty of work to be done. Our purchasing process continues to be reformed to allow more competition, which in turn, saves the taxpayers money. In my office, we’ve been able to reduce spending both years I’ve been in office, while absorbing pay increases for staff as well as increases in postage to mail tax bills. We’ve done this by eliminating unnecessary software, getting more mileage out of our computers, and utilizing a new tax payment processor that is saving the county more than $90,000 per year.
7 - What would you do to improve that if elected?
I think it’s a cultural change from the top down. The company I worked for prior to becoming Treasurer was very frugal. It started at the top with our CEO and worked its way all the way down. It was a culture of watching every penny, identifying waste and ways to save money. I will continue to lead by example as the County Treasurer by keeping our spending to a minimum and always finding ways to reduce the cost of providing services, while at the same time supporting my staff and giving them what they need to do their jobs. I always maintain the mindset of “would I do this with my own money?” If the answer is “no”, then why would I do it with the taxpayers’ money?
8 - How do you feel about the way revenue is collected in Madison County?
First and foremost, I think it’s important as the County Treasurer to also feel some of the pain of the high property taxes that we face in this state. I bought my first house in Rosewood Heights, back in 2000, when I was 23 years old and paid my first property tax bill, and I’ve been paying property taxes in this county ever since. If a candidate for this office hasn’t paid property taxes in this county, do they really deserve your vote?
In Madison County, we’re one of only two counties in the state that has four installments for real estate tax payments. The other 100 counties have just two installments. The four payment option allows taxpayers to spread out their payments and ease some of the burden of the high property taxes that we’re faced with here in Illinois. We also have an option to pay monthly, and we continue to have more people take advantage of that option. Many counties don’t offer that option, because it can be labor intensive and they’re not adequately staffed to handle it. We’ve streamlined the process to make it easier for us to manage and offer the taxpayers an easier way to budget.
We have strict state guidelines that we’re forced to follow in collecting real estate taxes. I would like to someday see a complete overhaul of our property tax system and the way it’s collected. In Illinois, we pay in arrears, so for example, this year, we pay our 2017 taxes. While in Missouri, you pay your 2018 taxes by December 31, 2018, so you pay it in your current year. Paying in arrears makes for several challenges that is very confusing for taxpayers. It’s just an antiquated system in my opinion. But as I mentioned earlier, as long as Mike Madigan is Speaker of the House, and making his living in his day job as a property tax appeals lawyer, he has no incentive to change the system.
9 - What would you do to improve that if elected?
Since we’re forced to work within the system that the state has set up, we are always looking for ways to make it more efficient. We’re in the process of implementing an e-tax bill option. This would allow you to have your tax bill emailed to you, and allow our office to avoid printing and postage costs. Our vendor has piloted this program in other areas and it’s starting to catch on. We plan on rolling it out as an option for 2019.
I also take great pride in the ethical delinquent tax sales that our office runs. We had 29 tax buyers at our tax sale this year, and this competition resulted in the lowest penalty rates in county history. The low penalty rates make it easier for delinquent taxpayers to redeem their taxes and keep their homes.
10 – How does the current state and national climate affect this office in your opinion, and what would you do to capitalize on that or remedy it?
The huge improvement in the national economy over the past 2 years has definitely allowed more taxpayers to pay their taxes and in a more timely fashion. We’re collecting real estate tax revenue at a greater pace than normal over the past few years, and had 12% fewer delinquent parcels auctioned at our tax sale this year. The nonsense coming out of Springfield has made it more difficult to do business, as the state’s fiscal mess and inability to pay its bills has put more pressure on local property taxes. And while we don’t set the property tax rates, we do send out the bills, so we get most of the complaints with taxpayers upset by their high property tax bills.
One thing we have done to assist our local schools is to accelerate the tax distributions, to improve their cash flow. We’re required by state law to distribute funds to the taxing districts once every 30 days. However, nothing in the law prevents us from distributing it more often than once every 30 days, so we worked with the local schools and started distributing twice per month, to correspond with the school districts’ payroll dates.
With the improving economy and rising interest rates, I took the opportunity to completely overhaul the county’s investment portfolio once I took office. I set up a bond & CD laddering strategy to spread out risk, allow us enough cash on hand to pay our bills, and maximize the yield in the portfolio. In the past 18 months, we have reinvested approximately 60% of the portfolio and we have tripled the returns on those investments. I’m proud to say that our portfolio is now performing better than any other county’s portfolio in the entire state. And things will only improve over the next 18 months, as I’m able to reinvest the remaining 40% of the portfolio, as investments mature. This will result in an increase of nearly $4 million per year in annual revenue from the portfolio, which means the county will have less reliance on property taxes to fund its operations.
FUNDING
Here is who is funding Slusser and how much they are donating, according to Illinois Sunshine, a group which follows campaign funding for Illinois candidates in real time: Madison County Republican Central Committee - $8,039.96 Chris Slusser - $7,145.57 Mark Mestemacher - $7,000 Plummer for Illinois - $5,250 Christopher Slusser - $4,432 Vicksburg Development, Inc. - $2,000 Darla Knopf - $2,000 Illinois Liberty PAC - $2,000 Bold Enterprises, Inc. - $1,750 Jason Plummer - $1,000 Mike Lawrence - $1,000 Tom and Patti McRae - $1,000 Barney Mundorf - $1,000 CHRIS MILLER Democrat Chris Miller did not return answers to the questionnaire, which was sent both via email and though Facebook Messenger. Instead, here is Miller's bio and campaign stances provided on his website: Chris Miller knows business. A successful small-business owner, the veteran finance and accounting executive is uniquely qualified. As an entrepreneur, he knows how to create change while balancing the burden of taxes with the necessity of providing basic public services like roads, police, fire protection, and schools. Chris Miller knows public service. Following in his parents’ footsteps, he now teaches the next generation of job creators as a professor of entrepreneurship and lends his expertise to the community with free small-business trainings as part of his Madison County RISING Initiative. Chris Miller knows integrity. When he learned that the current political appointee and career politician occupying the Treasurer’s Office was running unopposed, he mounted a write-in campaign to earn his place on the ballot and provide the voters of Madison County with a qualified candidate. Chris’ Vision Madison County deserves more from its Treasurer. With your support, Democrat Chris Miller will: EXPAND THE TAX BASE ADVOCATE FOR PROGRESSIVE TAXATION EXTEND FINANCIAL LITERACY & CREDIT-BUILDING FUNDING Here is a list of Miller's donors of $1,000 or more from Illinois Sunshine.org, a site dedicated to tracking campaign financing in real time: Simmons, Hanly, Conroy - $11,100 Ken Miller - $7,600 Jayne Simmons - $5,600 John Simmons - $5,600 Maune Raichle Hartley French and Mudd - $5,000 Madison County Democratic Party - $5,000 Gori, Julian and Associates - $4,634.95 Chris Miller - $3,195 Illinois Democratic County Chairmans Association - $2,000 Linda Miller - $2,000 Friends of Von Nida - $1,000 S.W. Illinois Laborers' Political League - $1,000 Charles Hoffman - $1,000
Chris Miller will minimize the burden on taxpayers with initiatives like the Madison County Regional Investment in Startups and Innovation for New Growth.
Chris Miller will fight to relieve middle-class families of excessive taxation while ensuring that public services are adequately funded.
Chris Miller will help working-class family’s incomes go further by partnering with nonprofits to help residents improve their credit.More like this:
