McHenry Times

Steven Reick, who won the GOP primary in Illinois House District 63, is shining a spotlight on the devastating impact taxes and regulatory policies have had on his district, and is calling out House Speaker Mike Madigan and Democrat state Rep. Jack Franks for neglecting the needs of District 63 residents.

In a campaign ad uploaded to his YouTube channel, Reick showed footage of the vacant 1.5 million-square-foot Motorola facility that once offered thousands of jobs to Harvard, Illinois residents and said the demise of the facility is a classic example of what Illinois’ hostile business climate has done to booming businesses.

“In 1994, Motorola built this facility in Harvard; in 2003, they left,” Reick said. “This vacant building and hundreds more like it across our state stand as testimony to the tax and regulatory policies which make Illinois one of the worst states in the nation to run a business.”

The office building sits on 313 acres in rural Harvard. When Motorola closed its doors nine years after opening the facility, 5,000 employees lost their jobs. Although there have been several proposals over the years to use the vacant building for other purposes, the property has remained unoccupied since 2003.

Reick went on to imply that Madigan and Franks have done nothing to solve the problem.

“Have Mike Madigan and Jack Franks done anything to make this better?" Reick asked. "Jack Franks has represented our district for 16 years, and for 13 of those years this building has been empty.”

Reick has been highly critical of Madigan and Franks, placing blame for the state’s current problems squarely on the shoulders of the two long-time politicians and other Democrats in the General Assembly.

“The time for upholding the status quo is past, and Jack Franks is nothing if he’s not the status quo,” Reick wrote in a post on his website, Illinoyances. “He’s voted nine times for the current speaker; he’s voted none times for the rules that allow the speaker to keep needed legislation from getting a fair hearing.”

Reick took to his campaign website just before the primary election last month to address several mailers sent out that painted him as a “deadbeat” for some financial trouble the conservative candidate had years ago.

“While my failure to pay bills on time hurt no one but me and my family, Jack’s responsible for running up over $100 billion in debt that you’re going to have to pay for," Reick wrote. "In 2005, he voted to not fund Illinois’ five pension plans, and we’ll be paying that off for years to come. As an added bonus, his failure to fund the plans (and don’t think it wasn’t him, that bill passed by only two votes) makes it much more likely that those same people funding hit pieces on me will see their pensions dry up and blow away. You can thank Jack Franks for that.”

Since winning the Republican primary against Jeff Lichte, Reick is gearing up for a second battle against Franks, whom he lost to in 2014.