Illinois GOP 51st District State Senator Chapin Rose was in Vermilion County on Monday (Feb 13th). His district now runs approximately from the top of Vermilion County to the bottom of Lawrence County and along the Indiana State Line, with the Vermilion County exception of the I-74 Danville-Tilton-Oakwood corridor, which is part of Democratic State Senator Paul Faraci’s 52nd District.
While in Danville, Rose stopped by the Vermilion Advantage office to talk about a series of a half-dozen bills he is proposing, called “Job and Community Growth Legislation.” The proposed region for these is bordered approximately by the state line, State Route 9, State Route 51, and Interstate 64. Senator Rose says there are plenty of incentives to bring businesses to Illinois, but a big part of THIS is helping businesses that ARE here, STAY here.
AUDIO: Basically a tax credit for employers, key to job creation. So unless you employ a worker here locally, (such as) in Vermilion County or Edgar County, you’re not going to get that credit, right? But it helps you grow here. It helps the people who are already here, the small businesses that have already chosen to be here in Illinois, it helps you grow here in Illinois.
Senator Rose says another part of this proposal has to deal with a property tax abatement for blighted housing that is improved, to be attractive to young workers.
AUDIO: I hear from plant managers all the time, ‘We’ve got a great job, we’ve got good benefits, but we don’t have housing for young families to come to our town and live in our town.’ And so another part of this package is aimed at helping communities grow new subdivisions of good housing stock for young families. You know you can get some people into town, put some new blood in the local school district.
Meanwhile, a Tuesday (Feb 14th) press conference will state another concern for Senator Rose: helping residents with power bills. Rose says the energy bill signed by the governor about six months ago took too much current energy off the grid too soon. He says the governor should take action to put some of it, powered by natural gas, back on.
AUDIO: The problem is it’s not just coal you’re taking off the grid, you (also) took natural gas off. The electrons aren’t there, on the grid. And so the only way compensate, of course is, by demand; is that the supply goes down, demand stays constant, and of course the price goes up. It was perfectly foreseeable, and those of us who voted “no” said that at the time.
Two other issues Senator Rose mentioned included hope he has that amendments can be passed to recent state legislation that took county authority away from determining how close solar and wind power units can be placed to someone’s property; as well as his opinion that although the recent proposal to provide diapers for qualifying families has its heart in the right place, he feels a better idea would be to lower the tax burden on families so they can not only have more money for diapers, but also major necessities such as food and power.
