Candidates seeking to represent the 34th District in the Illinois House say high property taxes are of major concern, but offer different solutions to easing the burden.
Incumbent Nick Smith, 50, D-Chicago, began serving in 2018 and faces Republican Frederick Walls, 53, of Crete.
Smith said while the district spans three different counties, he understands the plight of high property taxes in south suburban Cook County. The district includes all or parts of Burnham, Calumet City, Lynwood and Sauk Village.
“People just aren’t paying them,” Smith said. “Whether they get removed from their property or not is one thing, but the local municipalities aren’t seeing that revenue.”
Smith said while many proposals to lessen the property tax burden have failed to gain traction, the General Assembly should revisit every possible opportunity next spring.
“As far as I know, everything is on the table,” he said.
That would include initiating both short- and long-term fixes and revisiting the tax structure as a whole, he said.
Walls, in contrast, tied high property taxes to what he called reckless spending by Democratic leaders, including within schools. He said he wants to remove sex education from schools and reverse a 2021 measure requiring public schools to supply menstruation products in bathrooms for fourth grade through high school.
“Putting tampons in boys bathrooms is a waste of taxpayers money,” Walls said.
He said he also would support more efforts to report how much proposed bills would cost to execute before they are voted on and signed.
“It’s easy to sign a check when it’s not your money, right?” Walls said.
Walls unsuccessfully challenged Smith in the 2022 election, and said since then he has worked to build familiarity throughout the district, including challenging residents to think differently about issues important to them.
He said while campaigning, he many residents said they didn’t know who their representative was and had never seen him. In contrast, Walls said he wants to make his presence known.
Walls, who works as a construction worker, became interested in politics while serving as a pastor in Dolton. He said he also owns Highly Flavored Chicago City Grill, which has locations in Chicago and Calumet City.
Smith attended multiple colleges but obtained a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Chicago State University. Soon after a series of unsuccessful stints in graduate school, he worked for 20 years within the offices of Chicago aldermen before being appointed as state representative by Elgie Sims when he left the seat to become a state senator.
Smith said his top concerns are improving health care, education and job creation. He said during November’s veto session, he hopes to clean up the language in the cannabis law to regulate hemp consumer products.
“A lot of businesses are taking advantage. They’re selling hemp-derived products that get you high, but they’re not regulated, so you don’t know what the consistency of these products are,” Smith said. “We’ve had a lot of cases of young people and teenagers taking these products, having to go to the hospital, so we want to regulate that as well.”
State campaign finance disclosure reports show Smith’s campaign took in $356,100 in contributions in the July-September quarter. Expenditures were about $171,900, and at the end of the period, the campaign had more than $314,700 available to spend. His campaign’s largest contribution for this period was $68,500 from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Political Action Committee filed Sept. 28.
At the end of the period, Walls’ campaign had no receipts and about $46 left to spend.
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
