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28th Senate candidates disagree on income-tax roll-back
Election 2012
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NAME: Dan Kotowski
PARTY: Democrat
LIVES: Park Ridge
FAMILY: Two children
EDUCATION: Masters of Arts Degree from DePaul University
WEBSITE: www.dankotowski.com
NAME: Jim O’Donnell
PARTY: Republican
LIVES: Park Ridge
FAMILY: Two children
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in accounting from University of Notre Dame
WEBSITE: votejimo.com
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Updated: November 26, 2012 6:03AM
PARK RIDGE — When it comes to the state’s controversial income-tax hike passed in 2011, local State Senate candidates Dan Kotowski and Jim O’Donnell, both of Park Ridge, have differing views of its future.
Kotowski, the incumbent Democrat who has served since 2007 and is seeking re-election Nov. 6, voted in favor of the 67-percent increase and believes it should remain in place until 2015 when it is expected to drop from 5 percent to 3.75 percent. The personal income-tax rate was 3 percent prior to the increase.
Kotowski said “decades of waste and corruption” within state government “forced” the hike in the income-tax rate.
O’Donnell, Kotowski’s Republican opponent in the 28th State Senate District race this November, takes an opposite viewpoint.
“It needs to be repealed altogether,” he said, explaining that it was Kotowski’s support of the increase that prompted him to run for Senate. O’Donnell added that the state cannot “tax our way out of this mess.”
It’s a sentiment Kotowski agrees with, pointing to a spending-reform law he sponsored, which he said requires the state “to live within its means and fund programs based on their performance.”
“It’s one of the toughest spending-reform laws in the country,” he said. “It’s a complete change in the way business is done.”
For O’Donnell the state needs to concentrate on spending cuts — both large and small — and making Illinois a place where businesses want to be.
O’Donnell said his goals if elected will be repealing the 67-percent income-tax increase, establishing 10-year term limits for legislators and passing “meaningful pension reform.” O’Donnell said he supports a pension-reform plan that originated in Rhode Island, which consists of a temporary freeze on the cost-of-living adjustment, raising the retirement age and converting to a “hybrid” pension/401K plan.
Kotowski currently supports House Bill 1447, which would enact pension changes for members of the General Assembly and state employees. Kotowski said the bill will save the state billions of dollars over decades by reducing benefits for elected officials and “going after pension abuses.”
Kotowski said his main priority if re-elected is “to realize the extent of my spending-reform law.” He also supports eliminating part-time boards and commissions and term limits for legislators in leadership positions.
“I have a proven record of standing up to business as usual and fighting corruption to fix our state,” Kotowski said. “If you listen to voters they’ll tell you they want someone who works with people from both sides of the aisle to get things done. My record proves that.”
O’Donnell, who is vice president and chief financial officer of a hydraulics-manufacturing company, believes one of his strengths is his background as a “career business guy.”
“I think that my opponent is part of the Chicago Cook County Democratic machine that has had control over state government since 2002 and has destroyed our state’s economy,” O’Donnell said.~.
