Patricia D. Bonnin, ‘Patti Vasquez,’ Illinois House 19th District Democratic candidate profile

Candidate profile

Patricia D. Bonnin, “Patti Vasquez”

Running for: 19th District State Representative

Political/civic background:Advocate for Individuals with Disabilities; Served Master of Ceremonies for scores of area non-profits including Almost Home Kids, Danny Did Foundation, Silver Lining Foundation, Epilepsy Foundation, Immerman’s Angels; Member of Jefferson Park Forward.

Occupation:Comedian, Medical and Educational Consultant, Screenwriter, Podcast Host

Education: Onahan Elementary, Our Savior Norwood Park Lutheran School, Lane Technical High School, University of Illinois- BA in History, Graduate Work at Northwestern, Graduate work at UIC.

Campaign website: FriendsOfPattiVasquez.com

Facebook: @TeamPattiVasquez

Twitter: @PattiVasquezCHI

Instagram: @PattiVasquezCHI

The Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board sent candidates for the Illinois House of Representatives a list of questions to find out their views on a range of important issues facing the state of Illinois and their districts. Patricia D. Bonnin, “Patti Vasquez” submitted the following responses:

Please tell us about your civic work in the last two years, whether it’s legislation you have sponsored or work you have done in other ways to improve your community.

*Member of Jefferson Park Forward

*Judge of Elections

*Charity fundraising- Including Willow House, Childserv, American Lung Association, Equestrian Connection, Special Olympics, and JDRF.

*Through social media, live performance and my talk show on WGN Radio I engaged my community by inviting them to participate in political actions, highlighted the importance of state government, highlighted charitable organizations, and fought for autism and disability services and funding.

*Introduced constituents to their legislators for one on one meetings in Springfield and district offices.

*Through Childserv, as a volunteer instructor, I lead workshops for children and young adults residing in group homes. I teach kids how to use humor to process trauma and work towards healing. I also volunteered at Camp Sheilah to assist children (all who have lost a family member to homicide) to use humor to deal with their grief.

*Volunteer for Jefferson Park Farmers Market

Please list three concerns that are specific to your district, such as a project that should be undertaken or a state policy related to an important local issue that should be revised.

Public Safety. As a lifelong resident of a district that is home to so many first responders, I hear firsthand of their concerns about the availability of support services. So much of our focus, as expected, is keeping our streets safe that we often forget the mental toll on the people we hire to do a job most of us can’t or won’t do. Unless we serve their needs in terms of mental health services, we are doing a disservice to communities throughout Chicago. As a member of the General Assembly, I will make it a priority that first responders have access to mental health services that will help them better perform their jobs while keeping our communities safe.

Property taxes are a huge burden in my community and throughout the state, and they are a poor way to fairly collect revenue. For example, we tax a $200,000 house the same for the 45-year-old widow on a fixed income as the two-income family earning $100,000 per year. Therefore, in order to relieve the property tax burden, I will advocate for the Fair Tax, which would place increased responsibility on those with higher incomes; and specifically taxing passive income at a higher rate, and not continue to place an unfair burden on people whose property might be their only real asset and an inaccurate reflection of their net worth.

Special Needs Education - It is appropriate that one of my priorities is related to the issue that led me to become an advocate in Springfield to begin with; the services available to our most vulnerable children and adults. In my community, Beard Elementary School has an outstanding program for children who have autism. My son Declan attended the school, but unfortunately it only serves students between the ages of three and nine years old. The program ends arbitrarily at that age and scatters them to the wind after we have invested resources, skills, and talent to start them on a path to reaching their potential.

As a result of these gaps in services, students must be transported to Northbrook, Mount Prospect, Lisle and other communities in order to attend classes. We need to expand services at schools like Beard in order to provide opportunities to children of all ages and their families. Beard is not peculiar to my community; there are similar examples throughout the state where we are not serving people with special needs adequately. That was the cause that brought me to Springfield and will continue to be a priority as Illinois remains one of the worst states in the country in terms of providing opportunities and services for individuals with special needs.

What are your other top legislative priorities?

One priority will be to reintroduce the Fighting Wage Theft Bill (SB 1720) which passed both houses but was vetoed by Governor Rauner and has not been reintroduced. I am currently in contact with one of the key experts who helped craft the bill and will make it a priority to reintroduce it as a member of the General Assembly.

I believe that Chicago Public Schools need an Elected School Board. Chicagoans deserve a seat at the table when it comes to determining their children’s future. Once elected, I will work to pass legislation which will allow for an elected board.

What is your position on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed graduated income tax? Please explain.

I fully support the governor’s plan to enact the Fair Tax, so that the tax burden no longer rests on poor, middle- and working-class families, who have borne the brunt of the tax burden and who have fled our state in record numbers. A Fair Tax plan that will increase revenues for vital services, infrastructure, and education would help reduce the pressure on property taxes that are used to shore up local spending. Our state still ranks among the bottom five in terms of unfair state tax, we continue to place too much burden on the people who can afford it least.

Illinois continues to struggle financially, with a backlog of unpaid bills that tops $6 billion. In addition to a progressive state income tax — or in lieu of such a tax — what should the state do to pay its bills, meet its pension obligations and fund core services such as higher education?

It is encouraging that Illinois has taken steps to be fiscally responsible in recent years. The transparency of our bill payments, and prioritizing the backlog, pushed by Comptroller Susanna Mendoza, was a helpful effort in getting a grip on the problem.

Beyond the progressive income tax, we need to continue the extraordinarily complicated task of preserving vital services while exploring efficiencies and cut overhead, such as the consolidation of the roughly 650 police and fire pension plans across the state.

In addition, while candidates love to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse, I want to target very specific waste such as the fact that we spend more than $500 in education administrative costs per student throughout Illinois, the highest in the country; nearly twice that of some states. I will work to further reduce that cost by consolidating school districts so that we can eliminate the overlapping, often needless, administration costs.

I will also work to ensure that revenue generated from legalization of cannabis is earmarked and directed toward our most critical needs; education and the pension crisis.

Should Illinois consider taxing the retirement incomes of its very wealthiest residents, as most states do? And your argument is?

While neighboring states tax retirement income, Illinois has resisted this revenue source. It is estimated that our failure to do so costs the state between $2 and $3 billion per year. We must create a graduated tax system to collect that revenue from higher-income earners to address critical state service needs while not having the unintended consequence of causing lower and middle-income residents who are entirely reliant on their retirement income to flee the state.

What can Illinois do to improve its elementary and high schools?

We fund schools incorrectly in Illinois; funding schools based on property taxes has been a losing proposition which is evidenced by better outcomes across the board in communities with a higher tax base. A good first step was the introduction of evidenced-based funding in 2017 to reverse regressive funding of education and begin to ensure that all students, regardless of income or zip code have equal access to a quality education. As an example, a recent study by the state board of education showed a range of schools in low income communities being funded at less than 50 percent adequacy, while schools in higher income areas were funded in upwards of 250 percent of adequacy. We cannot address the educational disparity without first addressing the economic disparity which starts with a reduced reliance on property taxes to fund education.

Mass shootings and gun violence plague America. What can or should the Legislature do, if anything, to address this problem in Illinois?

I support closing all loopholes for gun purchases. I would also support the gun dealer licensing act, and a lethal violence order of protection which would take guns out of the hands of individuals with a history of domestic violence, who statistically are more likely to commit a violent crime. I would also support a ban on military-style high capacity weapons.

Additionally, while often used as a scapegoat to excuse gun violence, it would be a mistake for us not to invest in mental health services intended to provide services for those who pose a risk to themselves and others.

Do you favor or oppose term limits for any elected official in Illinois? Please explain.

I am in favor of term limits on leadership positions. However, I believe the voters within a community should be empowered to select their own representatives. In other states, broad term limits remove effective leaders, undercut long-term political reforms, and erode the institutional knowledge of the legislature in favor of lobbyists and special interests.

The issue of term limits would be largely moot if we reformed the way campaigns are funded and made it more difficult for current and former legislators to profit from government service.

Everybody says gerrymandering is bad, but the party in power in every state — Democrats in Illinois — resist doing anything about it. Or do we have that wrong? What should be done?

Gerrymandering is incredibly easy to be against, but much more difficult to fix. A project by FiveThirtyEight.com in 2018 laid out just how complex the issue is, by redrawing each state’s Congressional districts based on six different criteria. Their conclusion was that there is no such thing as a “perfect map.” Independent redistricting with a bipartisan or non-partisan commission is likely the best option to make maps less partisan—it certainly appears to make them more symmetrical—but this depends on being able to appoint a commission of truly independent membership who cannot be influenced by political leaders and special interests.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago is investigating possible official corruption by state and local officials. This prompted the Legislature to pass an ethics reform measure to amend the Lobbyist Registration Act (SB 1639). It was signed into law in December. What’s your take on this and what more should be done?

We have not even begun to scratch the surface of Springfield ethics reform. First and foremost, we must restrict the ability of legislators to work as lobbyists while still holding office. Several members of the Illinois House and Senate are currently registered to lobby in Chicago. This practice must end immediately. I also support the House Republican plan that would make the annual reporting of economic interests more stringent, thereby shining a light on potential financial conflicts of interest. I would also support a longer “cooling off” period between the time an official leaves office and can begin lobbying for compensation.

When people use the internet and wireless devices, companies collect data about us. Oftentimes, the information is sold to other companies, which can use it to track our movements or invade our privacy in other ways. When companies share this data, we also face a greater risk of identity theft. What should the Legislature do, if anything?

While Illinois is in the top five nationwide in terms of protecting privacy online, there is still more to do. For example, Utah bars ISPs from sharing customer data with third parties without consent. Delaware requires the state government to dispose of customer data after a prescribed period of time. And California, the gold standard for online privacy, allows consumers the ability to learn what information any company has collected about them and who it has been shared with. Those three measures, enacted in other states, should provide a blueprint for how we proceed in Illinois

The number of Illinois public high school graduates who enroll in out-of-state universities continues to climb. What can Illinois do to make its state universities more attractive to Illinois high school students?

Illinois ranks in the top ten most expensive for a post-secondary education in the country and this must be addressed.

What I suggest we do is expand upon what my alma mater, the University of Illinois, has started doing with the “Illinois Commitment” program which provides graduates of Illinois high schools who are under 24- years of age, and whose family’s assets are less than $50,000, free tuition. What I would propose is a program which would reduce costs for students at all Illinois colleges and universities who do not meet the $50,000 threshold and for whom a college education would be prohibitive. By creating a graduated system that would allow lower income students the opportunity to attend a university—or trade school—without incurring massive debt, we could better prepare more students to be productive citizens, which would reduce social costs relative to poverty and crime in the future.

What is your top legislative priority with respect to the environment?

My first environmental priority would be to sign on to CEJA (SB2132 /HB3624). It is imperative that we pass this legislation in order to increase the state’s energy efficiency, take advantage of falling costs for both solar and wind energy, which would also have the effect of reducing energy costs to consumers, creating jobs and protecting the environment.

Additionally, an environmental priority that is relevant to my community is holding corporations like Foxconn accountable when they threaten Lake Michigan and the city of Chicago’s water supply. I also support incentives for companies to use recyclable and/or biodegradable materials in their packaging.

What historical figure from Illinois, other than Abraham Lincoln (because everybody’s big on Abe), do you most admire or draw inspiration from? Please explain.

Edward Coles, the second Governor of Illinois. Born into a slave owning family with considerable wealth, Coles refused to accept that owning human beings should be perpetuated and moved to Illinois to free the 19 slaves he inherited. He was arguably the most influential force in keeping slavery out of Illinois when the territory was granted statehood and even attempted to influence both Madison and Jefferson to free their slaves. Coles travelled up and down the state, persuading Illinoians, and pushing back on the promises of a slave economy to keep Illinois free. As a historian, I have researched the impact Coles may have had on Abraham Lincoln’s revulsion to the practice of slavery. Had Coles not fought to prevent the institution from taking hold in Illinois, slavery might have become commonplace and not the shock to the conscience to Lincoln as it was when he travelled to southern states as an adult. Coles could have easily accepted the traditions and expectations of his family and peers. Instead, he risked everything to spread the most sacred of American values- freedom.

What’s your favorite TV, streaming or web-based show of all time. Why?

M*A*S*H. As a child, the show taught me how to deal with trauma and the unspeakable horrors of war with humor and heart.