This is one in a series of stories looking at contested races in the Aurora area in the March 19 primary election.
The race in the March 19 Republican primary for the Kane County Board seat in District 12 is between incumbent Bill Roth and challenger Michelle Geen.
The winner will face Ricky Rivard, who is running unopposed in the Democratic primary in District 12, in the November general election.
Roth, 66, of St. Charles, is currently finishing his first term as a board member and said issues in the district include migrants, tax hikes and what he said is the over-reach of government.
“Illinois is a sanctuary state as well as Chicago and the problem is that it’s a federal issue that has now become a local issue because of the number of migrants coming over,” he said.
Tax hikes, Roth said, often involve school taxes which are not in the county’s control.
“We print the bill, so (voters) assume we have some control, but last year it was absolute chaos how we did our budget,” Roth said. “I was a finance major and half the board members don’t understand the budget at all.”
He said the county has to deal with a number of unfunded mandates from the state and federal government.
“To me, that’s a hidden tax at the county level saying you have to do this and how are we going to pay for it?,” he said.
If reelected, Roth said he wants to work on technological improvements for the county and also boosting economic development in the area.
“I was the tech expert on the board and I’m starting to push efficiencies with the CIO. There are huge cost savings we can do,” he said.
Geen, 55, of St. Charles, said this is her first time running for the board and that concerns in the district include taxes, safety and government transparency.
“Taxes are out of control with spending and instead of balancing the budget they just keep taxing people for government programs,” Geen said. “There needs to be more transparency with where the money is going.”
Geen said there are also concerns in the county about the issue of migrants.
“We don’t have the resources for all of these people,” she said.
Regarding transparency “a lot of my constituents are talking about board members that are not being transparent.”
If elected, Geen said her goals would include “to see government shrink its size” as well as the need for term limits.
“We need to shrink the size of government and programs,” she said. “Term limits are huge for me. People just keep coming back to serve on the board forever.”
There is also an over-reach of government into parents’ rights, Geen believes, saying that “I want to see the power back with the parents and not the educators.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
