Mark Albers

Criminal Justice / Public Safety Law Enforcement needs more resources to help keep our streets safe. The cuffs go on the criminals, not on the cops. I will not defund or reduce police or policing programs. We must support law enforcement everywhere. Wages / Job Benefits We need to fund the current pension obligations as those employees and retirees earned it. There needs to be a new, better and fiscally responsible way to fund future employees and retirees. Government Reform Enact Term Limits to stop the personal agendas of career politicians. Taxes / Budget We must immediately stop raising taxes and fees and throwing money at issues. Illinois does not live within its means. Taxes / Budget Fight reckless spending Eliminate Lobbying. Eliminate Perks for Elected Officials. Make all spending and contracts transparent and made public. Taxes / Budget We must then reduce taxes to incentify businesses and people to stay here and rebuild Illinois. Business is the backbone of the community and small business creates a majority of the job growth. Taxes / Budget We must evaluate operations, eliminate redundancy, automate processes, operations, use Artificial Intelligence and Technology to provide better services. Healthcare Mental Health funding needs to be addressed as we have lost focus on this segment of the population. Helping these folks goes hand in hand with community policing and safety. Healthcare We should not make healthcare decisions on what the insurance companies will allow - that decision should be between the doctor and patient. Healthcare We need to open our healthcare marketplace to all healthcare providers. Competition will bring costs down and quality up. We should have great healthcare at realistic costs. Education Teachers need to teach, and the teachers union needs to stay out of the classroom and away from our children. No politics or left-wing social agendas in the classroom. We learned during the pandemic that the Teachers Union had too much power, and our students were secondary. Education We need to put parents in charge of their schools and curriculum. Parental engagement should be encouraged – not discouraged. Guns The Second Amendment will be protected. Gun violence will not be resolved by passing laws against law-abiding citizens. Abortion / Contraception There should be no taxpayer and state funding of abortions.