Lake County Gazette

Republican candidate for governor Gary Rabine has had enough of all the heartache he feels Illinois’ economic decline has caused him.

“I’m running because I can see my family, my friends’ families and so many others that just want to get out of here,” Rabine recently told IllinoisChannelTV. “It bothers me so bad. I’ve been in business for 40 years, the last 20 building businesses as a leader, understanding what great leadership looks like and it’s not what we see in our governor and our mayor of Chicago.  I’m confident we need a leadership mindset that understands how to build leaders and doesn’t rule like royalty.”

Rabine knows the job won’t come easily, but is just as certain that his experience makes him the man for the job.

“In businesses and life you have strong differentia that make you, bring a different light to anything,” he said. “I understand how it works attracting jobs to our state and we do a lousy job of that. I understand how it works when it comes to taxing people out of state and we do a good job of that.”

Still, Rabine said the problems continue.

“Now the biggest thing that has come about is the culture thing,” he said. “If we can’t get people to leave because we’re chasing jobs away, can’t get them to leave because our taxes are the highest in the country, let’s just ruin our culture, our schools and our policing. We’re getting lead through a Pritzker, Lightfoot socialist agenda.”

A longtime Bull Valley businessman, Rabine said he can remember a time when the state was one of the best places in the country to do business.

“I’ve seen Illinois go from being the best place to build a business to being one of the worst,” he said at a recent Get Together event hosted by the Antioch Republicans and posted to Facebook. “When we look at our policy for workmen’s compensation it’s one of the worst three in the country. When we look at taxation today, we have the highest real estate taxes in the country, a terrible thing. In that time from 2007 to today, our property values have gone down. Other states don’t have these problems.”

Rabine said his platform is built around a plan dedicated to rebuilding the state's economy.

“I’m friends with a bunch of governors doing a great job bringing jobs to their states and I look at our state and we’re doing everything we can to push job creators out, to push opportunity out to push our kids out,” he said. “I can’t tell my kids this is the place you must stay to build your family to build a business, but I’m going to be able to tell them that. My slogan is paving the way to stay.”

Rabine said he’s convinced much of the battle lies in reforming the system and easing property taxes.

“We’re not serving our families in Illinois anymore,” he added. “If we were we wouldn’t be passing some of these policing laws. We’re letting unions control everything and that’s got to stop.”