As a REALTOR®, I see first hand the flow of quality neighbors fleeing our County and our State. I receive calls almost daily from homeowners who are desperate to move to Wisconsin, Indiana, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, etc to get out of the fiscal mess our state is in.

Lake County, with all of its beautiful and natural resources and amenities SHOULD be the ideal place to be born, live, get educated, find a quality job, raise a family, then retire. But that’s not where we are headed. Millennials are fleeing to where the better paying jobs are. Young families are choosing areas with lower taxes, or they are simply not buying houses because of high taxes and choosing to rent and not plant deep roots. Our retirees are giving up and fleeing the state to find affordable places to retire.

We are on a one way road to self destruction, and most people don’t realize how dire our predicament is.

I refuse to give up on Lake County and Illinois.  I believe MOST of us are common sense people that want futures for ourselves and for our children. I believe MOST of us want to stop fighting and work together for a better and more prosperous tomorrow. I believe ALL OF US have more in common than we know or admit.

I’ve been asked time and again for 10 years, “Dick, when will you run for office?” I have always responded the same way, “Never! I’m not in favor of always being hated by half the people.”  But over the past 10 years, as I’ve been instrumental in creating a huge sense of community in our 852 home community of Country Walk, I’ve learned that you can be helpful to all, regardless of political persuasion. Differences are just that, differences.  Those differences don’t define us, we define them. I’ve learned so much from my neighbors. While I don’t pretend to be liked by everyone, I can honestly say that I believe I am respected by most.

With the tremendous help of a large group of volunteers, I organized a huge block party this Summer for our neighborhood that was attended by over 700 people. Free food, drink, live music, entertainment for the kids, old fashioned games for the kids, a tug of war contest and a softball game for the adults. The day went perfectly, without a hitch. 700+ people with different ideas and beliefs and political ideologies got together, put all differences aside for one solid day of family fun.

This effort and example of community is what I want to bring to County Government. I don’t want to force my ideology down anyone’s throat because I dont purport to always be right. However, I want to lead by example, be inclusive, get people together to work together toward a common goal that we all can rally behind.

If I am lucky enough to earn your support and your vote, I promise to work hard at reducing spending in Lake County, working to pool resources from our many governing bodies, work to promote the sense of community many of us remember as children, be forceful about attracting good businesses with good paying jobs and building up our infrastructure to support the businesses who can help alleviate our residential tax burden.  I will also work very closely with State Government to put pressure on them to fix the pension and school funding formulas that are driving so many away.