Representative Tony McCombie

0:00and with us this morning over the phone illinois house republican leader tony mccombie he good morning good morning how are you i don't know coming up uh... the first weekend of spring came hard to treggs back into work week i think well we had i think one solid day of spring sunday was a little bit of a disappointment hello however today i think it's gonna be similar cold but at least the sun is shining and that makes all the difference yet yeah is as long as the sun's out i don't care what everything else is doing and we've got the snow that's right snows melted suns out what do you want that's right that's right let's see uh... what's going on today time uh... uh... i was gonna ask you that let's see uh... last week uh... were you in the springfield last week or uh... uh... what we don't yet yet yet we went back uh... the senate was out but we were in uh... but we were out for those two weeks in the senate was been so we're just kind of flip floppin so

1:01uh... yet we were in last week and we were in this week and then we're off a week for a right boy sorry to believe we're saying the store ready it's almost here i know it's wild uh... let's see uh... yeah well let's talk a little bit about session then we got a couple of other things to cover uh... anything uh... well should i put it this way anything surprising jump ahead yeah well this week already is also uh... deadline week which is it's gonna be pretty chaotic so if folks pay attention of of what's going on you're probably gonna have a lot of emails from advocates you know saying support opposed uh... because everything is supposed to get out this week out of committee so it'll be a pretty solid week and there's also uh... a ton of different organizations there this is the start of ag week so we have you know most of our caucuses is rural in nature so they certainly are going to be active and and have a lot of visits from around the state coming down to the capital which is always fun to see people

2:02you know from home uh... but last week uh... we did have a a heavier committee week uh... and you know i got on the floor and spoke about and and it's not the first time the agency mismanagement uh... but i think i talked about the cf s and i know we've talked about the cf s a lot you know that's really kind of what started my you know my time here in office with pan merger and yes uh... as a as a front-line worker here here here we are uh... you know that the front-line workers are in my opinion given the tools uh... to keep our kids safe there was another death uh... in the suburbs and there had been nine calls eight calls to bcf s prior and the night call uh... a young eight year old was uh... killed and there's just many indicators and you know there is a new director there imagine i think they've had like fifteen that could be off on that number by

3:03one to three uh... fifteen in the last fifteen years uh... hidey miller and and she's really trying and uh... she's pushing back he wants to be transparent she's having conversations with everybody in the general assembly regardless of your politics which is important and uh... i just don't know if she's going to be given the tools by the governor to to really systematically change how dcf s is and it it's it's a real problem i mean that the the front-line worker today the folks that are answering the hotline are still working from home and i think that environment doesn't really make for uh... as calls may escalate it doesn't make for a collaborative you know conversation with your neighbor in the next cubicle so it's concerning there's a lot of things that are concerning but this is you know a very important agency where we have to protect children and we've already had you know twelve hundred children um... killed under the governor's under the governor's watch we have

4:05hundreds of children missing and we've had over three thousand uh... seriously injured uh... so that that's not good uh... and it's on the responsibility of the state so that really what you know teetered off uh... but he's got several different agencies whether it's i'd e s i'd e p f r you know several that a d o c uh... which is many of your listeners are probably shaken their head yet yep so a lot of things that we could do to be fixing uh... state agencies but that's under the governor's purview and and not the legislative well so it is that that's not every state agency that we have it's just a handful no it's not every no but uh... d c f s for sure is is the one that is the worst and and just alone by you know keeping the directors are not keeping the directors it is part of that

5:06it's it's it's pretty it's scary and it's scary you know the state works so hard on family unification and often times that kid doesn't be shouldn't be with their family uh... and it seems like that's always the number one goal to reunite with your family when the number one goal should be to keep your child safe especially i mean it's it's it's wild to think that you're gonna put your child back into an environment where they may have been in a domestic violence situation they've been starved uh... they have a parent malnutrition and you know that continues to happen once again we're on the phone with illinois house republican leader tonima combi uh... let's let's talk about the l g d f funding cut she explained that to me i did not know what that was yeah that's the local government distributive fund uh... so people like well what is that well there

6:07statutorily uh... through our income tax revenues the the counties and municipalities and villages get a portion of that the deal is ten percent uh... but like many deals that are made in springfield they are not kept and every year uh... you know that uh... illinois municipal league and and mayors and village presidents and county boards and everybody is always fighting for you know their fair share which it's our tax dollars our tax income tax dollars should go back to our locals so they in the governor's budget address he decided to cut that another six million which would take it to uh... six point two three percent and the governor often says well yeah but the municipalities are making so much more money through gaming through cannabis through uh... fees uh... but no that that's not it doesn't matter and this is going to probably rub a lot of people wrong

7:08better listening but remember when the lottery was going to save education care this is this is the thing you know that's the revenues from lottery was supposed to uh... supplement education but what it did was just replace the money so they could spend general revenue fund now that has been fixed since then uh... but here we are the same situation the governor saying well you know but the cities are making so much money no they're not because all of our you know all of our our cost are going up the way that the state has required uh... cities and villages to get their business done through you know roads curbs and gutters their water sewer the requirements that are brought on has raised the car cost of living and it's not the case now but when in my old district in the seventy first when i had you folks the vanna was my highest uh... my my community with the highest tax burden than any other city in the district

8:08and you think that's kind of well but you think as people end up moving and leaving once the community of five thousand now barely a community of three thousand the only way to fix things is to raise property taxes and this cut here is exactly what will happen the cities will have to raise property taxes yet again to cover the failings of the governor and that's not right and it's certainly not fair yeah and we uh... you know it's uh... i don't know that the property taxes income taxes it's everybody's favorite time of year and then the last sold oh yeah well and unfortunately you know in the governor says we're doing so well well we're number one in the nation in property taxes and it's making things extremely um... unaffordable uh... with combination of our energy bills our property taxes overall cost of of living i mean there's there's no wiggle room i was just talking to you know uh... one of my friends young

9:08uh... you know starting out in life you know twenty and his twenties him and his girlfriend and you know he said hey did you see it you know the energy bill this and i said well i'm on a budget plan i always try to you know have it come up for the month and he goes it was nine hundred dollars it was more than my mortgage and you know that's that's real money and i and i said to him and i said you know just think about that you're working and you're able to work overtime if necessary think about all the senior citizens that are able to do that once again run the phone with elinoy house republican leader toney mccombie uh... what is her uh... it's probably taxes or other uh... tax hike proposals that are uh... floating around out there oh yes always is the governor's budget address had uh... like i think it was seven hundred and twenty eight million it will be one billion by the time it's all said and done but i think a lot of uh... uh... one that a lot of folks have heard

10:09is to impose out a new five dollar tax on back back yard campfires and hurt it and that's hb forty four fifty nine it's the most ridiculous ridiculous thing uh... but i can probably top that again you're hearing about uh... the graduated tax on plastic paper and reusable grocery bags uh... so the whole point is not to be used in plastic bags and here we are reusable grocery bag so it'd be ten cents starting in january twenty seven and then every year it would go up until it has twenty five cents a bag for twenty thirty i mean people are gonna start walking in with uh... rubber totes on wheels just to get their groceries uh... it it's an ass and i you know tax again and we've heard about it time and time again obviously that the billionaire tax we've already you know taken out uh... can griffin bruce round or several other uh... billionaires in the state of Illinois

11:10that have chased out hundreds of millions of dollars that helps pay for our most vulnerable situations uh... so they want to do another uh... millionaire tax on like what who who is that uh... but it but it's a a little different approach this cycle and uh... and you're even hearing in other states i think it was new york that they're considering you a millionaire if you're over five hundred thousand and uh... you know i don't know in new york city i think that's probably like a seventy five thousand a year job here so it is just a very slippery slope uh... but those are things a lot alone you know and i know a lot of people are starting to hear that another tax on taxing ammunition and you're you know that will probably be the one that really sent people right over the edge and it will be real you know a real problem and here again we're attacking law-abiding gun owners were attacking

12:10you know you to go at an adult to go and shoot traps at that hunt and we're gonna tax them but you know and i was listening to how they figured it so i think the governor said it was over eight hundred uh... the the cost of crime of shootings was and i could be wrong in the summer but slow i think it was around eight hundred million a year so let's take that eight hundred million divided by the number of uh... ammunition and that's where that's how we determine the tax well that's the case why don't we take that same number and divided by the number of people that commit crimes uh... around shootings and let's assess them a fine on top of their jail time seems that makes more sense to me why would we pay for crime they should be paying for it themselves right yeah i think what was it like ten cents a shell or something uh... something but god forbid we have common sense and under the government

13:10certainly certainly not with one party rule uh... once again run the phone with illinois house republican leader toni macombie uh... not on the list but i want to take a stab at it uh... because they know it keeps coming up a lot how's the uh... took a war going with uh... indiana illinois over the bears well unfortunately we were there last week and unfortunately there was not one ounce of conversation uh... with the bear so that that's very concerning and uh... the senate says they want that to start in the house and uh... but yet we haven't heard anything yet so i will see what kind of movement we have this week but even if we pass something in the house we're going to be gone for a week in the senate to be gone for two that's what that out quite a bit and i did see an article where the arlington mayor uh... had stated that it had to be done by the end of march and that just won't be possible uh... that won't be possible if if we're not physically in the building

14:10well still got a wait and see well you've got some upcoming events you know you know one of the things i noticed on your face book page i love that's where you're uh... taken uh... of a photo of yourself uh... in front of some some town or city might be visiting there's the city sign right there yeah yeah we wanted to do that you know really surrounding the campaign uh... but uh... you know as you can tell from the photos some of them started last summer okay and so you know i think it's uh... it's somewhere winter and some more windy and uh... but you know never an opportune time but uh... yeah no it's it's always fun getting around the district and you know that if that's why i still do it uh... it's it's certainly not for the shenanigans that happen at springfield that's for sure but always visit my website rep macombie dot com and uh... we do have a series of traveling office hours you're going to be seeing a safe the date um... as does you know uh... pretty he'll have his

15:14his copy uh... visits around the district after we are done at the end of may so uh... you know make sure to get out and visit with your state wraps even if it's just a say hello and and and meet them i think it's important that you have access absolutely absolutely so uh... let's see you'll probably uh... springfield by newness respect yes yep i am in the car right now i pulled over for a minute so i wouldn't lose you uh... but uh... yeah no i'm not i'm on my way like i before we talk to ag week and so we have a lot of visitors and found well them that's it ag weeks it's fairly exciting isn't oh yeah and you know and one of the best things that's that's really cool is seeing all the kids uh... that are there uh... and do you see all the blue jackets all the ffa from around the state and it's it's pretty awesome when you're looking when you're looking around the capital and obviously is that a nice beautiful

16:15you know blue with gold uh... letters on it's just it's just really nice and you know that's that's that's our future yes it is well you've got a good day for a drive and uh... we certainly appreciate you taking time out uh... from the busy day and uh... checking in with the stony well i appreciate that and as always have a great week thank you you as well talk later