This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the Nov. 5 election.
The race for a spot on the Kane County Board in District 22 in the fall election is between Republican challenger David Teas and incumbent Democrat Vern Tepe.
The general election is set for Nov. 5.
Teas, 58, of Elgin, said residents in his district have been asking about a number of issues including the economy, immigration and the homeless situation.
“The economy is about taxes soaring and food and gas prices,” he said. “Overall, it’s the taxes that are the biggest issue.”
Immigration, Teas said, has people worried as does the issue of homelessness.
“The homeless situation in Elgin – I’ve seeing after growing up in Elgin, I’m seeing an increase like nothing before and it’s not just here in Elgin,” Teas said. “It’s starting to flow into other counties, other cities in Kane County.”
If elected, Teas said he’d like to work on a variety of issues including “stop raising taxes, stop wasteful government spending and to create more programs for seniors throughout the county.”
Taxes can be handled “through other ways of raising or generating money,” Teas said, “because I feel that the county itself is not getting its fair share out of taxes from things like recreational marijuana.”
“There are a lot of recreational marijuana dispensaries around here and legalized sports betting is also a $52 billion a year industry and I feel like we should push forward towards taxing those instead of individual homeowners,” he said.
Regarding spending, Teas said we need “to figure out where we are wasting money and where can we cut back on some items without getting rid of programs.”
Seniors, Teas said, are a group “that need a lot of help and assistance with utility bills, getting to doctors and transportation.”
“I’d like to get some really good programs and money to help seniors out and try to make their lives easier or better,” he said.
Tepe, 83, of Elgin, said issues in the district include “the discord that exists in politics and people are concerned about why people just don’t tell the truth.”
Other issues are concerns about the economy and the way “it affects them” as well as “the general health of the people that live here, mental health being a big part of it.”
The discord, Tepe said, “is something that people are tired of and it really starts at the national level.”
“Now it’s worked down to the county and the local level and they are just tired of the fact that – people don’t know what the truth is because there is so much misinformation out there,” he said.
The economy and the way it personally affects them is another issue “as people talk about inflation. They talk about it because of the costs rising, but people don’t always see that their income is rising as well.”
Community health and mental health remain issues and “people would like to see some kind of effort being put now into mental health,” he said.
If reelected, Tepe wants to work on finances, “the biggest issue we’ll be facing,” he said.
“In reality, because of COVID, the county got over $200 million in COVID funds and it was able to use a lot of those for operating costs,” Tepe said. “Four years ago we fixed a lot of issues that had been ignored including pay equity, a plan to maintain our facilities. The key thing I want to work on is seeing that the county is properly financed and fiscally managed.”
Tepe also wants to work on “a long-term plan for the county.”
“Too often, most plans, in my opinion, were not beyond the next election cycle. I’m an experienced businessman and you need a long-term, not a short-term, plan,” he said.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
