My name is Dick Barr and I live in Lake County with my beautiful wife, Holly and our four awesome kids, ages 5 to 20. I own my own Real Estate Brokerage right here in Lake County where we serve the communities of the Round Lake area, Lake Villa, Lindenhurst, Antioch, Grayslake, Fox Lake and Gurnee. My 15 minutes of fame came in 2011 when I was a featured agent on HGTV’s House Hunters.
I am a member of both the Government and Political Issues Committee for the North Shore Barrington Association of REALTORS®, and the Government Affairs Committee Lake for the Mainstreet Organization of REALTORS®.
I serve as a commissioner for the Round Lake Beach Planning and Zoning Commission, as well I serve on the Board of Directors of the Round Lake Beach Police Foundation and served on the Board of Directors for the Round Lake Beach Cultural & Civic Center Foundation and the Junior Board of Directors for the Save A Star Drug Awareness Foundation.
In 2014 I was a member of the team that went to Springfield to present the work we had done with the Civic Center to advance community ideals and promote coming together as a community. As a result of the work and presentation, we were awarded the 2014 Governor’s Hometown Award.
I am also a member of the Lake Villa Republican Club and the NRA.
I am a strong fiscal conservative who believes that governments need to, at minimum, balance their budgets, but ideally start limiting their budgets to necessary functions only until we can fix the mess we are in here in Illinois. I am in favor of “Zero Based Budgeting”, which is a concept that, unlike our current system, does not automatically budget for continued spending on projects and programs, however, needs assesses programs and projects before adding them into a budget.
I believe education is the single most important subject at issue today. It must be fixed at the state level very quickly. The burden of school funding should not lie directly on the property tax payer. I also believe in order for school funding to be truly fixed, the pension crisis must be solved. While there is not much I can do with my votes on the County Board to address school funding and pension reform, I will make it my mission to continuously lobby and work with our state representatives and senators to address meaningful and effective reforms.
But above all, I also believe as your representative, none of my own beliefs matter. I am your representative. I will be constantly meeting with you, the public, to get your opinions on issues. I will be consistently present at local government meetings throughout the district to meet with your elected officials to listen to the issues and learn ways I can help. As your representative, I will consider myself a failure if at any time during my term you feel I haven’t listened to you. I have very close friends on both sides of the Political aisle. I enjoy conversation and debate. I will always make myself available to listen to you and to have a conversation.