Lake County Gazette

Republican state Sen. Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorn Woods, recently vowed to overcome rampant state-level corruption as he continued to ramp up his election bid.

“As you know, I believe we can take back Illinois from the corrupt power brokers who control it,” McConchie said on his Facebook page recently. “A huge 'thank you' to everyone who is helping me win my campaign for State Senate.”

The candidate primarily expressed concern over Illinois’ burgeoning tax controversy — specifically over residents who are considering leaving the state if its tax problems, including skyrocketing property taxes, remain unresolved. McConchie was unimpressed by the legislature’s passage of a “stopgap” budget earlier this year, saying it will do little to mitigate hardship for citizens.

“This just goes to show just how broken the budget system is,” McConchie told the Lake County Gazette. “We have a stopgap budget, (and) we were not given — legislators were not given — adequate information at the time as to just how much this was going to cost. It was pushed through with virtually no notice.”

McConchie said lawmakers underestimated the long-term cost of the stopgap budget, emphasizing that only a reduction in spending will diminish Springfield’s mounting pile of bills. McConchie said that while a 2011 tax increase was meant to address the backlog, it did not achieve its goal, and he warned that the Democrats’ resistance to cutting spending could force a repetition of the entire process at year’s end.

“We raised taxes back in 2011, and this was supposed to clear out our bill backlog and take care of all these various problems that we have,” McConchie said. “Instead, what happened was that we increased spending, and none of the problems that the four-year tax increase was supposed to solve were solved.”

Supporting McConchie's interpretation, Moody’s Investors Service recently said the state’s unbalanced $7.8 billion stopgap budget will only serve to increase its backlog to as much as $14 billion by the end of fiscal year 2016-2017 on June 30, 2017.

McConchie was appointed to the District 26 seat April 20, chosen to replace Republican Dan Duffy when the latter resigned to take a position with a child-abuse-prevention advocacy group. McConchie’s selection resulted from a vote among Republican leaders  from several counties, including Kane, Lake, McHenry and portions of Cook.

"For too long, our politicians have ignored the people and simply done whatever benefited them and (affiliated) special interests,” McConchie said in a statement when first appointed to his Senate seat. "This has to come to an end. We aren't lacking good ideas to solve what ails us. What we are lacking is the political will to do what is right."

McConchie's platform is also informed by his business skills, having worked for humanitarian nonprofits and currently serving as a senior adviser to the Shelby Group, which integrates private-sector purchasing practices to government, as well as sitting on several boards of regional civic groups.

McConchie has served previously as Ela township’s precinct Republican committee member. McConchie also assists the pro-life policy group Americans United for Life and lends his time to numerous volunteer efforts. Additionally, McConchie served for nine years in the U.S. Army National Guard.

“I’m in the state Senate to cut spending, lower taxes and fight corruption,” McConchie said on his campaign website. “Together, we can reform our state for us and our children’s future.”

McConchie’s jurisdiction includes parts of Algonquin, Barrington, Carpentersville, Cary, Crystal Lake, Deer Park, Fox River Grove, Green Oaks, Hawthorn Woods, Hoffman Estates, Island Lake, Kildeer, Lake in the Hills, Lake Zurich, Libertyville, Long Grove, Mundelein, Oakwood Hills and Vernon Hills.