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17th House candidates differ greatly
Election 2012
The Candidates
Name: Laura Fine
Party: Democrat
Age: 45
Lives: Glenview
Family: Married, two sons
Education: BA, Indiana University; MA, Northeastern Illinois University; graduate, Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership
Website: www.fineforstaterep.com
Name: Kyle Frank
Party: Republican
Age: 45
Lives: Skokie
Family: Single
Education: BA from Northwestern University, JD from Vanderbuilt University
Website: www.electkylefrank.com/
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Updated: November 19, 2012 1:37PM
Voters will have a definite choice Nov. 6 when casting ballots for State Representative of the 17th District.
The two candidates have different backgrounds and goals for the position if elected.
Laura Fine, the Democratic candidate is the clerk of Northfield Township, as well as an instructor in the political science department at Northeastern Illinois University, where she teaches American Government and the Constitution.
She is on the board of directors of Links North Shore Youth Health Services, a volunteer at the Northfield Township Food Pantry, and a member of the Democrats of Northfield Township.
She would like to:
• Require state legislators cut pay; push to freeze property taxes when home values decline;
• Make sure schools are able to sustain their achievement level without increasing property taxes;
• Address the high cost of insurance and the responsibilities insurance providers have to their customers;
• Make sure seniors have affordable access to prescription drugs;
• Improve and streamline health care;
• Find reasonable fiscal solutions to the stateʼs problems;
• Focus on ways to get residents back to work;
• Coordinate efforts between local businesses and the state to ensure families will no longer struggle to stay in their homes and feed their families.
“Seven out of eight people I’ve spoken to while going door-to-door are concerned about those issues,” Fine said.
Frank, an attorney in private practice, is a life-long resident of the 17th district who lives in Skokie.
If elected, he would:
• Phase out the state income tax;
• Privatize state services to cut expenses;
• Implement a fair pension system;
• Merge the CTA, Metra and Pace to lower costs;
• End costly health care duplication;
• End Medicaid corruption;
• Limit school administrators’ salaries;
• Separate Chicago from Cook County.
Frank also thinks income tax should be reduced to three percent and property taxes should be cut.
He would like to see the state privatize as many services as possible to relieve it of some liability, too.
“I think we should lease state parks to private companies. If we can’t do that, we should work with non-profit groups to raise funds for them. This is already being done in Arizona and California,” Frank said.
He also would like a forensic accounting analysis of the Medicaid program.
“Ohio did this and found that 4 percent of Medicaid recipients accounted for 50 percent of the program’s expenses,” Frank said. “If this is true in Illinois, that could mean about $7.5 billion dollars.”
Frank also would like to see a referendum calling for the end of township governments to streamline and end the duplication of services.
“I think we could consolidate a lot of our entities to lower our property tax bills,” he said.
The district covers Evanston, Glenview, Golf, Morton Grove, Northbrook, Northfield, Skokie and Wilmette.
