Samantha Simpson, Illinois House 31st District Democratic candidate profile

Candidate profile

Samantha Simpson

Running for: State Representative for the 31st District

Political/civic background: 2012 - 2018: Senior Business Relationship Manager, Product Director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
2009 - 2010: Communications and Policy Manager at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office
2008: Constituency Director at Cordray Committee, Rich Cordray for Ohio Attorney General campaign
2008: Volunteer, Obama for America
2007 - 2008: Vice President Ohio Young Black Democrats, Ohio Democratic Party
2007 - 2008: Community Education Coordinator, Ohio Treasurer’s Office
2006: Cordray Committee, Rich Cordray for Ohio Attorney General campaign
2006: Education Policy Intern, United States Senator Barack Obama

Occupation: Full-time candidate, formerly Consulting Manager for Deloitte

Education: MA Public Policy, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy
BA Spanish, The Johns Hopkins University
Loyola Academy College Preparatory High School
Holy Angels Catholic School

Campaign website: samanthasimpson.org

Facebook: @SamanthaSimpsonForStateRep

Twitter: @SamHSimpson

Instagram: @Chicago.Samantha

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. Samantha Simpson 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.

In the past two years, the most notable three ways I’ve worked to improve my community were by (1) volunteering as a Cook County Court Appointed Special Advocate to ensure that our children in foster have their voice represented in the judicial system; (2) improving how an American Fortune 100 energy company informed the public about their options to consume renewable energy for their homes and businesses; (3) ensuring the Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending division of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were properly equipped to perform examinations and investigations of financial institutions ensuring regulatory compliance, and ultimately that American consumers are being treated fairly.

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.

Property Tax Reform

A state policy that should be revised is the Property Tax Reform. It is important that homeowners are not taking on additional tax burdens, especially when there are a number of commercial properties in their communities. The assessment process for commercial properties is completely outdated. It is important that commercial property owners have up-to-date and accurate assessments and are paying their fair share of taxes.

Equitable education funding

Another policy concern is equitable education funding. We need to ensure our schools are properly funded and providing students with the opportunity to learn at all ages. We should also provide more transparency in how the billions of dollars in revenue from the Illinois Lottery funds public education.

Business attraction and growth

It is also important that Illinois remains an attractive destination for businesses and families. Many companies have recently relocated and consider relocating to Illinois each day. To create opportunity and jobs for residents, we can do better to identify novel ways to retain companies and small businesses. To simultaneously diminish blight, we should consider how vacant areas can be repurposed into thriving business corridors. One specific example to achieve this is by increasing access to information about programs like Restore Renew Reinvest, which apportion funds from the legal sale and taxation of cannabis to provide job opportunities that contribute to the community’s revitalization.

What are your other top legislative priorities?

Incorporate financial literacy into curriculum in K-12 education.

My experience at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau highlighted how consumer education and information is critical to supporting families’ pathway to financial stability. Other legislative priorities include support for equitable education at all ages and responsible financial stewardship.. I also support investments in infrastructure to keep our roads and buildings safe, which creates jobs while simultaneously reducing our environmental footprint.

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

I support the graduated income tax, and all of the constitutional amendments necessary to implement the Fair Tax. It is important to me to protect our neighbors from the current regressive flat tax that will hurt working and middle-class families in the future.

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?

Income tax reform will help us to develop a sustainable revenue stream, but this is not a silver bullet. Our current financial state took decades for us to get into. Undoing the damage and setting Illinois on a road of financial stability will take a multifaceted approach. First, it will require incentives that increase our tax base. We need to avoid increasing the burden on our current base by attracting and keeping businesses in Illinois. Innovative and thriving industries such as green energy and other businesses should be growing here. Their presence would have the effect of increasing employment opportunities and slow Illinois flight. Also, as those industries grow and create a niche in our state, we will be able to create better opportunities for higher education and strategic workforce development further stabilizing our tax base. We also must ensure Illinois receives a fair share of Federal funding. Our taxpayers deserve comparable re-investment in the state’s infrastructure. We would also need to find ways to diversify our income from investments and other non-tax based revenue streams. Finally changing our spending practices will help us to avoid ever finding ourselves in this situation again.

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

Currently wealthy retirees are using a tax strategy that allows retirees to leave large inheritances in retirement accounts. I support taxing the retirement income of Illinois’ very wealthiest residents to relieve the burden on low and middle-income retirees.

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

Illinois schools have improved over the past five years, but we have much work left to do. There are two areas where we can move the needle and see the growth Illinoisans deserve. First, we need to continue to increase access to equitable early childhood education with an intentional focus on the quality of education of school-aged children up to age 8. These are critical years where, with enough attention to class size, teacher preparation, and achievement gaps in the later years can be curtailed. Also, placing emphasis on socio-emotional learning. Additionally, we need to look at the tail end of our K-12 system and ensure our education practices are responsive to the modern economy by helping students attain their desired postsecondary pathway, whether that be vocational, entrepreneurial or focused on college.

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

Illinois gun laws are some of the strictest in the United States and I am proud of that fact. However, we need to do a better job of enforcing those laws and bringing our regulatory technology into the 21st century.

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

This idea has the potential benefit for attracting elected officials who are committed to being good stewards for their constituents. On the other hand, policy making is a slow process that could be hemmed by term limits. I do favor term limits that provides elected officials time in office to effectively pass and implement good public policy. This way the people could continue to choose representatives that work for them and elected officials would be held accountable to their constituents even after spending years or decades in office.

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?

We need to set boundaries around gerrymandering. I support creating an independent commission to draw district maps instead of the Illinois General Assembly. The commission would be non-partisan and comprised of residents who demonstrate fairness and objectivity for Illinoisans.

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?

This is a good first step, we need to implement a stronger revolving door policy by creating periods of time where lawmakers can not lobby their former peers or lawmakers in any legislative body in the state.

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?

Ensure an opt-in and opt-out option for Illinoisans. This territory is new and rapidly changing as our use of technology evolves. Our legislature should prioritize further developing the Division of Innovation and Technology with intent focus on recruiting and hiring the best the industry has to offer. We can also invest in consumer information campaigns that help users be aware of their privacy rights and responsibilities that promote safe use of phones and the internet.

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 can do several things to make its schools more attractive. First affordability for state residents needs to be a top priority for our legislature. We should revisit the availability of programs like the Illinois Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants as well as merit-based scholarships that can help retain our state’s brightest talent.

Colleges can also invest in comprehensive student support systems that provide access not only to traditional academic services, like advising and tutoring, but also ways to support personal health and build a sense of belonging that welcomes them to stay.

We should also continue to ensure that state universities and community colleges are delivering world class educational opportunities by requiring robust programming that is responsive to new career fields and supports students in obtaining economic opportunity upon graduation.

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

My top legislative priority is bringing Solar for All. It will expand home-heating efficiency, especially for low-income households, and save money by lowering electric bills. Solar for All will also create an incubator program providing $20 million per year to develop minority owned businesses in the clean energy industry.

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.

Gwendolyn Brooks is a woman I very much admire. I learned to love poetry simply because of how she wrote about the inner city of Chicago. Reading her poetry made me curious about the history of Bronzeville, a neighborhood where I attended school and church at Holy Angels from 1988 - 1998. It also piqued my interest in the Great Migration and sparked nostalgic conversations with my late great-grandmother who migrated from Shreveport, Louisiana to the South Side of Chicago. The Mecca is by far my favorite due to richness of cultural and political awareness that is still relevant today. Brooks was an amazing black woman who truly represented for the culture.

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

My favorite TV show is the Fresh Prince of Bel Air because it brought humor to everyday situations that kids in the 90s experienced in addition to showing multi-dimensions of black people on prime time television. Additionally, as someone who travelled from a single-parent home in Englewood to Wilmette, IL for high school, I empathize with Will Smith’s character.