Campaign Platform Expanded

Rob Sherman for State Representative
Box 7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
(847) 870-0700
Fax (847) 870-1156
www.robsherman.com/staterep/home.htm
rob@robsherman.com

20-Point Campaign Platform for 2006

Ban Property Taxes
Ban Sales Tax Skimming, also known as Sales Tax Rebating
Ban Gifting for Votes, also known as Members' Initiatives
Ban Waivers as a Condition for Participating in Government Programs
Ban Excessive Government Fees and Fines
Ban Fees for 911 Emergency Service Responses
Ban Excessive Jury Fees
Ban Indoor Smoking at Businesses
Ban Marriage Discrimination Against Gay Families
Extend, Widen and Innovate Transportation
Oppose Religious Repression in France
Ban False Advertising of Movie Start Times
Ban Judicial Fraud and Prosecutorial Fraud
Allow Juries to Rule on the Law and Establish Appellate Juries
Require the State to Fully Fund Its Share of Public Education
Require Lap/shoulder Seat Belts on School Busses
Encourage School Holidays for World Series and Super Bowl Championships
Ban Coerced Student Signatures at Schools
Increase the Speed Limits on Interstate Highways
Increase Use of Covered Recycle Bins

1. Ban Property Taxes. The problem with property taxes is that there is no longer a relationship between property tax assessments on your home and your ability to pay that tax. Assessments have been skyrocketing, through no fault of your own, even though you don't have the ability to pay a higher tax assessment. This has resulted in seniors being taxed out of their homes. They are being forced to sell their homes to come up with the money to pay property taxes which are way too high and assessed unfairly in that the assessment is not based on ability to pay. Government officials won't like my idea of banning property taxes because they don't want a system that is based on your ability to pay. They want a system that doesn't take into account your ability to pay because then they can tax you more. I, on the other hand, want to make sure that your ability to pay is the only basis for your taxes. I will sponsor legislation to ban property taxes and replace it with income taxes because taxes should be based on your ability to pay. The component amounts of your income taxes will be based on tax requests from local taxing bodies, such as park districts and school districts, just like property taxes now are, but will be assessed on the income tax base of the community, rather than the property tax base of the community. The money that you pay in income taxes for these various taxing bodies will remain in your community, just like property taxes now do. The difference will be that the taxes will be based on your ability to pay -- meaning your income -- rather than on how much of one particular asset, real estate, that you own. If you want a ban on property taxes, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

2. Ban Sales Tax Skimming, also known as Sales Tax Rebating. There is a tax scam that many municipalities now use to increase their tax revenues. What they do is bribe large businesses to move into their town by offering a kickback to the store of a percentage of the sales tax which the store generates. That percentage usually ranges from one-third to one-half to as much as an 80% kickback. The problem with this scam is that you end up paying two or three dollars in taxes for every one dollar of government services that you receive. The rest of the money goes to the company that collected the tax from you. This isn't even their money that the store is paying in taxes. This is your money that you pay. The store is merely supposed to be acting as the collection and remittance agent for the municipality, not the partner of the municipality. Another consequence of this scam is that many major retailers now use sales tax skimming as an extortion ploy against communities. They tell municipalities that the store won't move into their town unless and until the town agrees to kick back at least half of the sales taxes. "If you don't agree to rebate back to us half the sales tax money, we'll move into a neighboring town, instead, and you won't get any of the new sales tax revenue." This outrageous form of extortion and of corporate welfare by government must end. I will sponsor legislation that will ban sales tax rebating because sales taxes should be used for public services, not corporate profits. If you want a ban on sales tax rebating, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

3. Ban Gifting for Votes, also known as Members' Initiatives. For many years, each member of the Illinois General Assembly has been allocated a certain amount of money, around three million dollars per year, to spend in their district pretty much any way they want. The theory was that members know what's best for their district. In practice, however, what the members actually do is use the money for gifting to private organizations and local government agencies (agencies that are not agencies of state government, such as the state highway department or state police). The expectation by the legislator is that the members of the favored private organization or the residents of the favored local jurisdiction will be so grateful to the legislator for the preferential treatment that they got at the expense of everybody else that they will all vote to re-elect the legislator as a token of their appreciation. In other words, a half billion dollars per year of state tax dollars is being used essentially for vote buying. Favored constituents benefit, while the rest of us get no benefit but get stuck with the bill for extra services to the favored constituents. This outrageous practice of gifting for votes, at our expense, must end. Expenditures of state tax dollars must be limited to state responsibilities. Local park districts don't donate tens of thousands of dollars to the local fire department to buy a new fire engine. That's the fire department's problem. If the fire department needs a new engine, it is the responsibility of their residents to pay for it, not the residents of other fire districts. If park district board members acted like the state legislature and used their resources for gifting to other agencies, they'd go broke just like Illinois state government has gone broke. Park districts need their money for their own priorities. Similarly, the state needs their state tax dollars for state responsibilities. I will sponsor legislation to ban members' initiatives because state taxes should be used to pay for only those things that are the state's responsibility, not for gifting to favored constituencies. If you want a ban on members' initiatives, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

4. Ban Waivers as a Condition for Participating in Government Programs. In this scam, government agencies, such as public schools and park districts, require you to sign a waiver that absolves them of any and all claims for injury, damage or any other loss you might sustain as a result of your participation in their government program. Never mind that the Bill of Rights of the Illinois Constitution, at Article One, Section Twelve, guarantees you the right to go to court to seek a remedy for all injuries and wrongs which you receive to your person, privacy, property or reputation. While the Constitution grants you certain rights, attorneys who work for the government see their job as finding ways to scam you out of those rights. If the government is so concerned about protecting themselves from liability for their own wrong-doing, the proper way for government to protect themselves is by not engaging in the wrong-doing, rather than coming up with scams to block you from seeking restitution for their wrongdoing. I will sponsor legislation that will ban mandatory government waivers because you should have the right to go to court against any defendant, even if that defendant is the government. If you want a ban on mandatory government waivers, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

5. Ban Excessive Government Fees and Fines. If you park on a parking meter in downtown Chicago, feed the meter some quarters and then get back to your car three minutes late, the ticket is a whopping $50.00. If you don't pay within a week, or if the ticket disappears from your car before you get back to your car, the fee increases to $100.00. A hundred bucks for being twenty-five cents short on your estimate of how long you'd be away. That's outrageous! There are many other fines and fees that are highly excessive. For example, court costs can be substantial even if the case is tried and decided in just a minute or two. Government is supposed to use fines and fees as a deterrent for misconduct and to recover the cost of administering justice, but what they've done, instead, is turn fines and fees into profit centers for the arresting agency. This results in government making false accusations against completely innocent people, such as minorities who lack sufficient clout to be treated fairly by government, because government can turn a huge profit off of fake convictions. Fines and fees should be limited to the minimum amount necessary to deter actual misconduct and pay for the nominal cost of administering justice, not for generating extra revenue for the agencies that accuse you of something. If arresting and prosecuting you were to cost agencies money rather than being a profit center, then agencies would be discouraged, rather than encouraged, from make false and frivolous arrests. They would be much more likely to make an arrest only when the infraction was so significant that the safety of the public really necessitated it. I will sponsor legislation to limit fines and fees to the minimum amount necessary to deter misconduct and pay for administering justice because government should not profit from arresting and convicting people. I will also sponsor legislation to establish a statute of limitations on parking tickets because you shouldn't get booted for a ticket that was issued many years ago. If you want a ban on excessive government fines and fees and a statute of limitations on parking tickets, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

6. Ban Fees for 911 Emergency Service Responses. Municipalities, in their persistence to turn your problems into their financial windfalls, are now charging enormous fees for emergency responses. Lawyers are in the business of turning your troubles into profit centers, and most village board and city council members are lawyers, so that's where it comes from. I am not a lawyer. The Republican incumbent in this district is. In many municipalities, a 911 call for a Fire Department ambulance now costs you anywhere from $300 to $800 or more. I will sponsor legislation that will ban emergency services fees, with certain limited, reasonable exceptions, such as repeated false alarms and occasions when the emergency agency incurs extraordinary expenses, such as shoring up a building after a truck drives through a support pillar, because you shouldn't take a pass on calling 911 for fear of the cost. If you want a ban on fees for using 911 services, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

7. Ban Excessive Jury Fees. You have a right to a trial by jury, including when you are falsely accused of a minor violation, such as an ordinary traffic ticket. The government doesn't want you to have a jury, because a jury is much more likely than a judge to acquit you when you've been falsely accused, so the government has come up with a scam to block you from exercising your right to have a jury. In this scam, the government makes sure that the cost of being innocent far exceeds the cost of being guilty. The way the scam works is that the government makes the fee for having a jury higher than the penalty for getting falsely convicted. For example, a parking ticket may have a fine of twenty to fifty dollars. A moving violation, like running a red light or speeding, might have a fine of seventy to ninety dollars. In order to make sure that you don't ask for a jury, the government sets the jury fee at $160.00. What's the point of having a jury, if the cost of having one exceeds the cost of being falsely convicted? This is exactly why the government makes the jury fee so high. I will sponsor legislation limiting the cost of a jury to 25% of the cost of the typical penalty for the offense because the cost of being innocent shouldn't exceed the cost of being guilty. If you want a ban on excessive jury fees, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

8. Ban Indoor Smoking at Businesses. Many municipalities are afraid to adopt an indoor smoking ban at all businesses for fear that smokers will take their business to a neighboring town that doesn't have such a ban. Usually, the municipalities say that they would support a state-wide ban, but not a local one, because a state-wide ban would protect their local businesses from such defections. In addition, many municipalities that want to adopt a smoking ban have been blocked by the state legislature from doing so by state statute 410 ILCS 80/10, which prohibits municipalities from regulating smoking in public places if they hadn't passed an ordinance concerning the regulation of smoking prior to October 1, 1989. Apparently, the tobacco industry bought off enough legislators to get that one passed. I won't sell out to the tobacco industry. I will sponsor legislation that provides for a state-wide ban on indoor smoking at businesses and that repeals 410 ILCS 80/10, because you should have the right to patronize or work at a business without having to deal with the stench of cigarette smoke. If you want a ban on indoor smoking at all businesses in Illinois, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

9. Ban Marriage Discrimination Against Gay Families. Gay couples should have exactly the same right to marry as straight couples have. If you don't like gay marriage, don't marry a gay person! Nobody is asking straight people to sleep with a gay person; nobody is asking straight people to go to a gay bar; and, certainly, nobody is asking straight people to subscribe to the gay lifestyle of kindness, warmth, caring, compassion and love. Gay marriage is not about sex. It is about love and spousal rights, just like heterosexual marriages are. Allowing two homosexuals who love each other to marry won't interfere in any way with heterosexual marriage. We don't need the radical right wing's Defense of Marriage Amendment because gay people are not trying to stop the partners in straight families from getting married. What we do need is a Defense of Family Amendment so that straight people can no longer stop the partners in gay families from getting marrying. I will sponsor an amendment to the Illinois Constitution which states: "Every unmarried person who is of legal age shall have the right to marry any other willing unmarried person who is of legal age, regardless of the gender or sexual orientation of those two persons," because not serving gays at the Marriage Bureau is no different than not serving Blacks at the lunch counter. If you want ban marriage discrimination against gay families, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

10. Extend, Widen and Innovate Transportation. It takes far too long to get from here to there in northeastern Illinois. In many cases, traffic is paralyzed because people want roads built or widened everywhere except in their own neighborhoods. North-south traffic in southern Lake County is paralyzed. Route 53 should be extended north to Route 120 and connected east to the Tri-State and northwest to the Wisconsin border to connect it with the Route 12 expressway in Wisconsin. East-west traffic in southern Cook County and northwest Indiana is paralyzed. Route 355 south should be extended through Will County and then southeast to Interstate57, Illinois 394 and to the Illinois border, where Indiana can extend it a short way to Interstate 65. It takes an hour during afternoon rush to drive the ten miles on the Tri-State Tollway between Lake-Cook Road and O'Hare Airport. That road should be widened to four or five lanes in each direction. We should establish a high-speed, point-to-point rail system to zap passengers in just a few minutes between distant major strategic points in Chicagoland. Drivers would be willing to park their cars at regional high-speed rail terminals if they could commute, in a matter of minutes rather than hours, to places where they don't need their cars, like airports and downtown Chicago, particularly if they don't have to pay the high price for parking that is charged at those places. The high-speed rail grid could be built along or above existing rights-of-way, such as Interstate highways and railways. It would connect places such as: Downtown Chicago, O'Hare Airport and Midway Airport; Skokie, Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, Elmhurst / Oakbrook and Tinley Park; Waukegan / Gurnee, Elgin, Aurora and Joliet. Then, by connecting the grid to the Gary/Chicago Airport and the Rockford Airport and maybe even the Milwaukee Airport, we wouldn't need to build a south suburban airport or expand O'Hare because there would be sufficient capacity available, all linked together, so that you could connect from one airport to any other as easily and almost as quickly as connecting from one terminal to another at the same airport. In addition, such a system would take a huge number of cars off the road, so that those of us going to places where we need our cars would not have to compete for pavement with those who are going to places where they don't need or want their cars. If you want to see dramatic improvements to our transportation network, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

11. Oppose Religious Repression in France. The French government has no business telling religious people that they can't wear religious clothing in public. That's not a proper function of government. In France, legislation is pending that would ban the wearing of religious clothing, such as Muslim head scarves and Jewish skullcaps, in public places such as government schools. The French government should leave religious people alone to wear what they want in public. When I've done the atheist thing, the goal was always to get the government to leave atheists alone regarding matters of faith. Don't discriminate against us, don't show a preference for people who believe differently from us, and don't mock, insult, criticize, ridicule or find fault with us through the use of religious slogans and symbols. The purpose of government is to provide citizens with a limited array of services at the least cost possible, not to manipulate religious opinion or conduct. Religious freedom, however, cuts both ways. Government should leave atheists alone, but government should leave religious people alone, too. I will sponsor a resolution calling on France to repeal its new law that bans the wearing of religious garments in public places because all religious repression by government is wrong. If you want the Illinois General Assembly to adopt a resolution calling for an end to religious repression in France, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

12. Ban False Advertising of Movie Start Times. I don't go to movie theaters any more because they tell you that the movie is going to start at a particular time, but when that time arrives, they start showing ten or fifteen minutes of commercials and trailers. By the time they get around to starting the movie, I've already left the building because I've lost interest. Movie theaters can show all the commercials and trailers that they want. They just shouldn't be able to lie about when the movie is going to start. I will sponsor legislation that requires movie theaters to disclose the actual time that they are going to start the Featured Presentation because theaters shouldn't be allowed to pull a bait and switch with their start times. If you want a ban on false movie start times, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

13. Ban Judicial Fraud and Prosecutorial Fraud. I've seen more fraud in the Illinois court system during the past six years than I could have ever imagined was possible. Defendants who are completely innocent of any wrongdoing spend months or years incarcerated solely for having the wrong ethnicity or for engaging in political dissent. It costs the defendant tens of thousands of dollars for defending himself against the fake accusations, he loses tens of thousands of dollars more in lost wages and he loses months or years of his freedom, all for nothing. The reason that judges and prosecutors fake the conviction of so many innocent defendants is that they face no penalty for doing so. The worst that can happen is that a judge gets reversed. Big deal. That's not enough to deter prosecutors and judges from faking it. To stem the epidemic of corruption in the Illinois courts, I will sponsor legislation that will establish criminal penalties for judges and prosecutors who: A) pull element swapping scams after the trial for the purpose of falsely convicting a defendant for an accusation that the defendant has no opportunity to respond to; B) time hostage taking scams to coincide with a defendant's appeal brief filing schedule to keep innocent defendants from appealing fake convictions; C) conceal conflicts of interest until after the trial to enable judges to fake the conviction of innocent defendants whom the prosecutor or judge doesn't like; D) bribe witnesses to obtain fake testimony against innocent defendants; E) stall the issuance of rulings or the start of a trial to ensure that an innocent defendant is kept in jail for at least as long as he would have served if he had actually been guilty; and F) falsify the law, the facts or the testimony to justify a fake conviction of an innocent person. If you want to ban judicial fraud and prosecutorial fraud, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

14. Allow Juries to Rule on the Law and Establish Appellate Juries. Illinois statute 725 ILCS 5/115-4(a) provides that trial juries in Illinois are only allowed to determine matters of fact (what are the facts; who's telling the truth) and that judges have exclusive authority to decide matters of law. This statute gives judges unchecked authority to deliberately, intentionally and maliciously misinterpret and misapply the law to unfairly rig a case in against one of the litigants in a trial. Too often, the Illinois Appellate Court is more concerned about covering up for their trial court judge buddies rather than ruling fairly on appeal matters. The Indiana Constitution, at Article 1 (The Bill of Rights), Section 19, grants juries the right to decide both matters of fact and matters of law. I will sponsor legislation to authorize juries in Illinois to decide matters of law because judges regularly rig the outcome of trials against one of the litigants by intentionally misinterpreting the law. I will also sponsor legislation to establish appellate juries who will have the authority to rule on the fairness of the way a judge interpreted the law because an appellate jury would be much more likely than a group of appellate court judges to take seriously an appeal brief that proved that a corrupt judge misinterpreted the law to rig the outcome against one party to the litigation. If you want juries to be able to decide whether a judge is fairly interpreting the law and if you want litigants to be able to appeal the fairness of a trial court decision to an appellate jury, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

15. Require the State to Fully Fund Its Share of Public Education. The State of Illinois only been funding around 37% of the cost of public education. That percentage may be off a little bit, but the percentage is definitely well below 50%. Article Ten, Section One of the Illinois Constitution says that the State has the primary responsibility for funding public education. I will sponsor legislation that requires that the State of Illinois pays for at least 51% of the cost of public education in this state because the state constitution requires it. If you want the State of Illinois to pay its constitutionally-mandated share of the cost of public education, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

16. Require Lap/shoulder Seat Belts on School Busses. Every time that there is a rollover or side-impact collision involving a school bus, kids go flying through the air until they crash into something really hard. The result is that, in almost every major school bus accident, every kid on the bus is injured, many severely and some permanently. In addition, many kids die in school bus crashes simply because they don't have lap/shoulder seat belts. The reason that there are no lap/shoulder seat belts on school busses is that kids don't vote and kids don't make campaign contributions, so kids don't have the clout to have their safety protected. I will be the clout for kids if you will send me to Springfield. I will sponsor legislation to require lap/shoulder seat belts on all new school busses because kids shouldn't be maimed for life or die a horrific, painful death just because politicians are too cheap to put lap/shoulder seat belts on their school busses. I will also sponsor legislation that requires the State to pick up the additional cost of including seat belts on new busses because public school districts should not get stuck with unfunded mandates. If you lap/shoulder seat belts on school busses, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

17. Encourage School Holidays for World Series and Super Bowl Championships. When our baseball or football teams become world champions, we should be free the next day to celebrate. Therefore, I will sponsor a resolution calling for a public school holiday to be observed on the day after the Cubs or White Sox win the World Series and the day after the Bears win the Super Bowl. By making it a resolution rather than a law, school districts could opt out if they wanted to, particularly those districts which might have other loyalties, like those located just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. Based on past experience, we may need to invoke the terms of my resolution only once or twice per century. Surely, our schools could accommodate one or two days off every hundred years to celebrate a World Series or Super Bowl championship, and if we give the kids the day off after we win the World Series or the Super Bowl, your employer may be more likely to give you the day off, too. As for the Bulls winning the NBA championship or the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup, those victories don't occur until the second or third week of June. At that time, schools are either holding final exams, so a school holiday would be too disruptive, or schools are already out for the summer, so no holiday would be needed. If you want public schools to declare a holiday for the day after the Cubs or Sox win the World Series and for the day after the Bears win the Super Bowl, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

18. Ban Coerced Student Signatures at Schools. Attorneys for our public schools think that they've gotten really clever by having teachers ask children, some so young that they barely know how to read, to sign contracts, agreements to do things and waivers, all without their parents' knowledge. Sometimes, the parents are coerced to sign the documents under threat that their child will be excluded from an educational program if the signatures are not forthcoming. These documents may commit students to believe in certain values that the government wants kids to subscribe to. They may require students to do certain things at home. They even make students, some as young as seven years old, sign documents which say that the student agrees to permit the school to prosecute the student in court if they break, even inadvertently, certain school rules, like a rule on internet usage, yet in the same document the student is coerced to agree that the student will not take the school to court if the school violates the student's rights. I will sponsor legislation to ban all schools, public and private, from requiring or even asking any student to sign any document, ever, because the job of schools is to educate students, not to trick or coerce them, without their parents' knowledge or permission, into signing away their civil rights. If you want to ban public schools from coercing students into signing legal documents, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

19. Increase the Speed Limits on Interstate Highways. The speed limits on most Interstate highways are way too low. In the suburbs of Chicago, most people drive quite safely at 65 to 70 miles per hour. Indeed, the speed limit on suburban expressways and tollways used to be that high. On Edens Highway, for example, the speed limit was 65 back in 1965. On the Tri-state tollway, the speed limit was 70 back in 1970. Since then, most suburban Interstates have been re-engineered and rebuilt so that they are even safer than before. Downstate, most people drive the Interstates quite safely at 75 to 80, particularly our legislators who travel Interstate 55 at that speed, or faster, when commuting between Chicagoland and Springfield. If you've been on I-55, you know what I'm talking about and so do they. Having posted limits unrealistically low breeds complete contempt for posted speed limits. This leads to motorists not taking seriously the posted limit when it actually means something, such as in residential neighborhoods and in highway construction zones. As a result, dozens of highway construction workers are injured or killed every year. Let's get serious about linking the posted speed limits to the speed at which motorists can drive safely. I will sponsor legislation to decriminalize safe driving by raising the limits on Interstate highways, because the way to end the carnage in construction zones is to demonstrate that there is a real relationship between the posted limits and safety. If you want speed limits raised on Interstate highways, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.

20. Increase Use of Covered Recycle Bins. Since I began pushing in my home town of Buffalo Grove the idea of converting from open to covered recycle bins, several communities have switched from using those open, 18-gallon recycle bins to now using covered, 64-gallon wheeled carts. The main benefits are that recycle product no longer blows all over the neighborhood and paper product doesn't get ruined by getting wet from rain and snow. I will sponsor a resolution calling on all Illinois communities to recycle and to do so in covered recycle bins. If you want Illinois communities to recycle in covered bins, vote for Rob Sherman on March 21st.