Tax Credits and Green Collar Jobs: Karen May on Increasing Employment

Karen May has served as the 58th District state representative for the past 10 years. The Democrat and longtime Highland Park resident spoke with Highland Park Patch last Thursday about balancing the budget, job creation and her views on social issues.

Patch: How should Illinois pay its bills and balance its budget?

Karen May: You mean pay our bills on time?  We've passed laws for prompt payment, but the money's not there. We gave the governor unprecedented authority to borrow.  We have 600 separate funds in our state, we gave him unprecedented authority to borrow from the cash float. At any one time there can be $1 billion to $3 billion in there so we gave him authority to borrow on that, to help bring down the time that people have to wait to be paid.

We need a comprehensive budget solution to help us get on firm financial footing.  We have the lowest income tax of any state that has an income tax. It's lower than any of the states surrounding us, so in a recession like this one, revenues are not coming in. 

Patch: Does the state have to consider raising taxes?  If so, which taxes and how much? What would you do with the revenue?

May: You can't cut your way out of this mess, and you can't tax your way out of it. It takes looking at everything, and I am hopeful and will do everything in my power to get to a bipartisan solution.  We don't have enough Democrats who will vote for some of these things.  And the Republicans were the party of "no," to not put any votes on it.  So I blame the leaders for not working harder on it.  I was part of an independent group of Democrats that tried to bring some reality and reform to the budgeting process.  We did get in place performance-based budgeting. But our effort to make some cuts failed.

The solution is a combination. I voted against the income tax.  I want you to make that very clear, because my opponent is distorting that. They're not acknowledging that I voted against the income tax increase that was before us. I also voted against the bill that would have taxed a higher amount for those that make more than $250 000. There's a letter to the editor of the Pioneer Press making that clear. The distortions this time at the hands of my opponent are outrageous. 

Patch: What specific cuts then need to be made in the short term?

May: I've worked on a lot of (cuts) -- (improving) efficiencies in the Medicaid budget, and I passed a good bill on that this year.

I support getting rid of the aviation fleet. So there are things we can do, but we can't cut $13 billion away, because that's a 40 percent reduction in our general revenue fund for human services, and I won't cut 40 percent.

Half of our budget gets federal match so it is exempt from cuts for that reason.  The other half is stuff that we can cut. I have been speaking up strenuously for the past couple years for economies. We have a prompt payment act, and because of that, the state was issuing checks for 12 cents, 20 cents and all. I refused to sign the vouchers to authorize that, because it costs mort than that to cut a check. And because I refused to do it, we changed the rule. So I've been a very strong proponent of changing the status quo.

It's easy to say cut the waste, but finding it as a state legislator is very hard. We've been cutting $2 billion a year for the past several years. We've taken pay cuts, I supported the pay cuts for the last two years, and I'll support another 10 percent pay cut next year. So my opponent is totally distorting the record on that. I do think it speaks to her character and ethics, that she's doing it.

Patch: What would you favor to create jobs in Illinois?

May: We did a $2,500 tax credit for each new job created this last session. I passed a bill to give grants to manufacturers for energy efficiencies, water efficiencies and recycling. We have incentivized clean energy programs such as wind and solar. I happen to think that the green collar jobs are the way of the future. There are many entrepreneurs who reach out to me with job creation ideas in this new sector. Whereas my opponent had someone write up that you should vote against people like me because we believe in wind and solar and clean energy. I happen to think that that's overlooking a way to put our economy on the right track.

Patch: What measures do you endorse to end Illinois' culture of corruption? Would you support campaign disclosure laws?

May: You mean since we've had three governors in prison?  We addressed that very quickly and decisively with ethics reforms and campaign finance reform. I felt it was necessary to gain the trust of the citizens once again. So this pay-to-play politics that Blagoyovich and Ryan seem to be into, we've put a stop to that. We've got a lot of ethics officers, inspector generals, you know, we've addressed it.  Quite frankly a lot of the media doesn't want to say that, because they'd rather paint everybody in a bad light.

Patch: What do you see as the differences between yourself and your opponent on social issues?

May: I believe in a woman's right to choose. And I believe most people in the district feel strongly about that. I believe in the Second Amendment, I believe in common-sense gun safety measures. She's (Turelli) the preferred candidate of the National Rifle Association. I believe in strong public education. I don't believe in vouchers, because they blur the line on the separation of church and state. My opponent believes in vouchers. I believe we should keep the moratorium against the death penalty in place because since it's been in place 20 people have been exonerated in Illinois. With (Turelli's) position she would have allowed the murder of 20 innocent people. I believe in civil unions because I don't believe in discrimination of any sort.

May contacted Highland Park Patch to make these additions to the above interview:

On cuts:  I also believe in managed Medicaid, in order to manage the cost. Medicaid is one of the biggest expenses our state has to deal with, so I support managed Medicaid.

On the election: I think this election is different because of the large amount of outside money that has been coming in for my opponent. This is national money, from conservative groups, Tea Party money and I think that has rallied people around me. Earlier people were saying, "Oh, you're a shoe-in."  But we are realizing that this year, there really isn't an election that isn't up for grabs.