Housing, crime, state budgeting and ethics were some of the key issues featured in a WGLT-WCBU candidate forum Monday with two candidates seeking the Illinois Senate 46th District seat.
State Sen. Dave Koehler, a Democrat from Peoria, is seeking a sixth term against Republican Sally Owens, a first-time candidate and small business consultant in Peoria.
The 46th district stretches from Bloomington-Normal to west of Peoria and includes parts of McLean, Peoria, Woodford and Tazewell counties.
Koehler, the assistant majority Leader, has been serving in the Illinois Senate since 2006.
Owens said that’s too long for any lawmaker to be in office. “You have to kind of question the guy who’s been in there for almost 20 years in the same job,” she said.
Owens said term limits would limit political corruption. Koehler replied that experience matters in Springfield.
“The institutional memory has to be maintained. If you don’t have it in the legislators themselves, then what you do is you give that to the staff and you give that to the lobbyists,” he said.
Koehler said it’s hard to stop a lawmaker who is truly corrupt, adding he supported recent changes that limit legislative leadership posts to 10 years. Owens wants that cap for all lawmakers.
State budget
Owens calls herself a moderate Republican. Regarding the $53 billion budget Illinois lawmakers approved in the spring, Owens slammed lawmaker spending and said the state should be more business-friendly to grow the tax base.
“We have to increase our taxes through increasing our taxpayers, not the amount people are paying. We need to bring people back to Illinois,” Owens said.
Koehler countered saying Owens was short on specifics.
“Anybody who talks about getting the budget in line has to talk about where they are going to cut," Koehler said. "What are you going to take out? Are you not going to fund schools? [Are you] not going to fund the disabled?”
Housing
Both candidates said state government can do more to address the housing shortage.
Owens said many home builders have left the market and financial incentives would help bring them back. “We don’t have an economy right now where it’s advantageous for them to be building homes,” she said.
Koehler said the state can further invest in gap funding to help developers and put more money toward homelessness.
“The federal government has some, the state has money, the private sector has money they are willing to invest,” he said, urging communities to streamline local zoning laws to encourage building.
Cash bail
Koehler said he supports more changes to the landmark criminal justice reform bill that ended cash bail in Illinois. He said the Pretrial Fairness Act is a good start, but said county governments need help making up $140 million in lost revenue.
“We probably do need to put more resources back into the system and help make it work better,” Koehler said.
Owens was much more critical of the reform law, saying law enforcement should have played a larger role in crafting it.
“When they put that together, we didn’t bring all the right people to the table, When [they were] drafting the law, it just got sloppy,” she said.
Owens suggested the law should do more to keep violent offenders off the streets, citing a shooting one mile from her house, allegedly by someone who had been booked on weapons charges two weeks earlier.
Studies have shown the law has not led to an increase in crime.
Karina’s law
Koehler, a gun owner, said he plans to support Karina’s Bill when it comes up for a vote. The measure would require judges to order law enforcement to confiscate guns from anyone who has an emergency restraining order against them.
Koehler cautioned the law may put police in danger.
“I think it’s going to be most dangerous type of law to enforce,” he said, adding he’s open to ideas that would make the law easier to enforce. He cited a shooting in which two sheriff’s deputies in western Illinois were shot while serving a warrant.
Owens, also a gun owner, said she supports laws that would keep guns from people who have prior criminal records or are other deemed “unfit,” but added she’s concerned existing laws aren’t being enforced.
“We need to have better controls in enforcing the laws we have on the books,” she said.
The forum at Illinois State University was hosted by WGLT, WCBU, the Vidette, ISU’s Center for Civic Engagement, ISU’s Student Government Association, McLean County and Peoria League of Women Voters and the Bloomington-Normal NAACP.
Election day is Nov. 5. Early voting is underway.
Watch the full video of the forum: