PRIORITIES
In Chicago, life is expensive; housing, taxes, groceries, childcare, the list goes on and on. Isaiah is running to end the cost of living crisis. He will reform the county government so that we get more value for our tax dollars while building programs that effectively provide services for those of us just struggling to get by. He will reduce regulatory barriers for businesses – it shouldn’t take 8 months to get approval to open a family restaurant – and for the construction of affordable housing. Isaiah is committed to a balanced budget and generous social services; building a government that works will be his mission everyday.
Human Centered Social Services:
We take for granted that navigating government programs is hard. From property tax appeals, to finding a provider in CountyCare, to getting a permit, our interactions with the government are often slow, challenging to understand, and burdensome to navigate. The government doesn’t have to be this way. Isaiah will work everyday to build a Cook County government where services can be accessed digitally, applications are simple, requirements are rational, and lines in offices are non-existent.
Isaiah will:
- Reduce county office wait times: Nobody should have to wait more than a few minutes to speak to a real person at a county office and someone certainly shouldn’t have to wait all day to be seen.
- Reform the provision of County social services so that recipients can easily apply for, navigate, and access the programs they are entitled to: The harder a program is to navigate and apply for the smaller the number of people who will be served by the program. In the case of CountyCare health insurance and other services the consequences of high access burdens can be fatal.
- Digitize all County services: If the program can be administered digitally it should be administered digitally. Whenever possible individuals should be able to opt to make fewer trips to County office buildings.
Property Taxes:
Property taxes in Cook County are burdensome, particularly for those with lower incomes. Nobody should be pushed from their homes and neither should businesses close because their taxes are unaffordable. Isaiah will create a fair property tax system where we fund the government we want while keeping people in their homes and their businesses alive.
Isaiah will:
- Simplify the property tax appeal process: If you are paying more than your neighbor with an identical house, you should not have to hire a lawyer to appeal your property taxes.
- Hold property tax increases at no more than the rate of inflation: By reducing tax increases we can reduce the cost of living for families already struggling with the cost of living. Isaiah will not vote to increase property taxes more than inflation.
- Implement a property tax circuit breaker: Nobody should be forced from their home because their property taxes have grown faster than their income and nobody should pay more than 8% of their income in property taxes.
- Grow the tax base by facilitating market-rate and affordable housing development: The County must do more to facilitate the construction of market rate and affordable housing. Not only do these projects grow the tax base which lower’s each properties individual bill, but they lower rent and purchase costs for everyone.
Public Safety:
The provision of safety is a critical role of Cook County government. From a well staffed Sheriff’s office, fair courts, an effective state’s attorney and public defender’s office, to a humane and rehabilitation focused jail all parts of the county’s justice system have to work together to keep people safe and do justice.
Isaiah will:
- Better staffing the sheriff’s criminal investigation division: Cook County has dangerously low clearance rates for property and violent crimes. There are many people who offend who we don’t catch. By increasing the capacity of the Sheriff’s office to find perpetrators we can deter crime and keep offenders off the streets.
- Adding funding for additional patrol offices to keep our communities safe: The sheriff’s office is deeply understaffed for the work we ask of it. It’s time to change that.
- Increased staffing for the public defenders office: Just like we don’t want criminals walking free we don’t want innocent people going to jail. Justice requires an adversarial system and that means providing prosecutors with the resources they need to prove guilt and public defenders with the resources to prove innocence.
- Provide evidence-based rehabilitation programs and more humane conditions for the incarcerated: We should be giving former offenders every tool possible to turn their lives around. The last thing we want is for them to re-offend.
Ethics and Open Government:
Chicago has a long history of corruption and government for the few and well-connected. Cook County has been and continues to be a particularly bad offender in this respect. Isaiah will re-write County ethics rules from the bottom up to ensure that elected officials are working for the voters first and only.
Isaiah will:
- Implement a ban on outside employment: County commissioners should be focused on one thing and one thing alone: their constituents and their government obligations. County Commissioners make 100k; there is no need for any commissioner to hold an outside job.
- Increase income reporting requirements for County Commissioners: Today we don’t know what our commissioners make, where they get their money or if outside income creates financial conflicts. By requiring more reporting we can discourage bad behavior on the parts of our elected officials.
- Strengthen recusal requirements: Commissioners should be required to recuse when they have a financial interest in the Board’s actions, when they receive contributions from individuals with particular interest in a Board action, or when they are approving a contract for their outside employer.
- Require the Courts to comply with the state Freedom of Information Act: In Cook County our courts aren’t just courts; they are program administrators. From the Public Guardian which provides lawyers for abused and neglected children, to the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center, to the Adult Probation Electronic Monitoring Program, the Courts administer programs that have a deep impact on individual’s lives and our safety as a County. Information pertaining to the efficacy of these programs should be public, not secret.
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