McHenry Times

With recent census data showing Chicago's population shrank for the third year in a row, a McHenry County board member running for state Senate said the cause isn't difficult to find.

Craig Wilcox, who represents District 4 on the McHenry County board and is running to represent Illinois state Senate District 32, pointed the finger directly at Springfield. 

"This exodus that has plagued 80 percent of Illinois' most populous cities is an indictment on the failed leadership and philosophy that is guiding the state's leading lawmakers down in Springfield," he told the McHenry Times. "I will strive to maintain a commanding voice in the state Senate to fight to reverse these damaging policies and to advocate for policies that entice families and businesses to Illinois, as opposed to those that have created the conditions for people to flee."

McHenry County Board member Craig Wilcox, running for Illinois State Senate

By contrast, his opponent in the Senate District 32 race, Democrat Mary Mahady, McHenry Township assessor, would continue efforts with the state’s powerful House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) that created those conditions, Wilcox said. 

"My opponent seems to think that the solution must come from massive state bailouts of schools to then serve as an offset to then reduce property taxes," he said.

"Of course, this would have to be coupled with increases in the state income tax, which her party supports, to account for the deficits needed to sufficiently fund the Illinois public schools. She also is a vocal critic of attempts to reduce and eliminate redundancies in the structure of our local government. It is the fiscal policies of Michael Madigan and John Cullerton that has led to this decline in Illinois population trends. Electing more of the same will not resolve these problems either."

Wilcox announced last summer his decision to run for the seat currently held by Sen. Pamela J. Althoff (R-McHenry). Althoff, who first was elected to the chamber in 2002, is not running for re-election, and her term expires in January.

Both Mahady and Wilcox were unopposed during the primaries in March.

About half of Illinois' largest cities have seen a reduction in population since 2010, and almost 80 percent saw a decline between July 2016 and July 2017, according to U.S. Census Bureau data issued May 24. Illinois ranks only behind West Virginia in consecutive years of population decline, according to the newly released data. 

"Thanks to technological advances that increased the mobility and connectedness of the American people, the landscape has become much more competitive between the states as Americans are now more willing to make their home in areas that are going to treat them the way that they want to be treated," Wilcox said.

"Seemingly in defiance of all logic, the Illinois General Assembly has enacted policies that have depreciated the value of remaining in Illinois when compared to the benefits that would be accumulated if people chose to take their labor and their capital to states that offer more and take less. With every new statute, regulation, and tax increase that is passed, it becomes another straw that breaks another resident's back and forces them to flee to friendlier climates. If we don't work to change these dangerous legislative trends, then the outcome of the next census will be bad for all of Illinois."

Illinoisans who haven't left yet are demanding change, Wilcox said. 

"Illinois families are increasingly demanding that the General Assembly change their destructive habits, often by voting with their feet," he said.

"Property taxes are continuing to rise; now there's talk about changing the structure of the state income tax to treat the taxpayers unequally. The solution to reverse the exodus and to attract more families to Illinois is to get the government out of the pockets of families and to embrace the policies that seem to attract, rather than repel, residents. For example, I would support creating a 1 percent hard-cap on property taxes."

Senate District 32 is within Lake and McHenry counties, and includes Woodstock, McHenry, Crystal Lake and Fox Lake.