Issues: Seniors
It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
-- Hubert Humphrey --
Learn more about specific issues (coming soon):
Like many of you, my mom is aging and has significant health issues. As a family, we often re-evaluate her ability to live independently and do our best to balance her wish to live on her own with our safety concerns. She, and we, are lucky in that she is still able to take care of herself for the most part, and that we are able to provide what little help she does need. Not all seniors here in Illinois are that lucky and many depend on state services to live in a way that they would like to.
While there are services in Illinois that do provide care, independence and dignity to over 100,000 Illinois seniors; Bruce Rauner’s devastating cuts to programs like the Community Care Program were horrendous and will be hard to replace, even with our new budget. As your senator in Springfield, I will be 100% committed to fighting to replace, protect and expand services for seniors.
In addition, as we all know, property taxes hit those with fixed incomes the hardest, putting many seniors at risk of losing a home that they’ve spent their lives paying for. In addition to fighting to reduce property taxes across-the-board, I will investigate ways to freeze seniors’ property tax rates at a lower, reasonable level so they can rest assured that they would not lose their homes over skyrocketing taxes.