Lake County Gazette

One of the youngest candidates in the race for the Illinois House says the recent rating given the state over taxpayer burden is proof of the fiscal irresponsibility in Springfield.

Marko Sukovic made the comments with regard to a Truth In Accounting (TIA) report that ranked Illinois 49th for how much its debt burdens taxpapers. 

“We can attribute that to the fact that we have had essentially a culture of complacency with the people that we have sent down to Springfield,” Sukovic told the Lake County Gazette. 

Marko Sukovic

He noted how eagerly politicians had been to dip into pension money to solve funding problems.

“That is supposed to be allocated and saved for them, but instead we are taking money from those accounts to solve short-term crisis after short-term crisis.”

Sukovic said the high property taxes and income tax rates are contributing to young people leaving the state. 

“It is not a place where companies and businesses want to come in,” he said. “A big message in this campaign is making sure that young people have a future in this state. That is why I am in it.”

The researchers at TIA have estimated that the average Illinois taxpayer owes $50,400. They also claim the government has approximately $235.9 billion in liabilities and only $25.5 billion in assets. The majority of the debt, according to the organization, is pension debt. 

Sukovic said one of the best ways to fix the system is to change the leadership. 

“Voters should have a vocal representative that is listening to their concerns not preaching to them but actually taking the opportunity to hear solutions that are community-centered: listening to those concerns and then putting together common-sense solutions,” he explained. “Some of the fixes that we are talking about can actually be considered common-sense fixes. It just doesn't seem like we have common-sense solutions right now in Springfield and that is what we are looking to change You could only really have the kind of economic reforms that we need to have by passing structural governmental reforms."

Sukovic is running against incumbent Rep. Carol Sente (D- Vernon Hills) for District 59, which includes Mundelein, Vernon Hills and Wheeling.  

TIA was founded in 2002. It is a non-partisan, non-profit organization with headquarters in Chicago.