Focus 580; Election 2002: Illinois Governor Race Candidate Interview: Libertarian Party

We are joined by our guest Cal Skinner. And let me just give a brief introduction for him. He is the Libertarian Party candidate for Illinois governor as I said at some future time someone from a political party other than the Republicans of the Democrats will occupy the governor's mansion in Springfield. And our guest Cal Skinner would like it to be him. He is the Libertarian Party candidate for governor and he began his political career at age 23 as the youngest county treasurer ever elected in McHenry County. He has a degree in economics from Oberlin College and did graduate work in public administration at the University of Michigan in the 1970s Mr. Skinner served four consecutive terms in the Illinois House of Representatives ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1980. Illinois State Controller in 1902 and then he was re-elected to the Illinois House in 1992. Again serving four consecutive terms would be fair to say that he has long been an advocate of lower taxes a topic I'm sure we will talk about during this hour. He's also taken a stand in favor of gun ownership rights a higher speed limit on the state's highways converting Illinois tollways to freeways and against higher cigarette

taxes. We'll talk about these and other issues with Cal Skinner during this hour. We'd also like to invite you as an Illinois constituent and voter to raise your own issues with the candidate. As we always do on these campaign interviews. This is a chance for you to directly interact with people running for public office. And we think it's very important for this kind of public dialogue to occur so that you can make an informed choice when you vote on November 5th to talk with our guest all you have to do is call us around Champaign-Urbana at 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. We also have a toll free line anywhere in the state of Illinois. You can use that will pay for the call 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Those numbers match up with our call letters around Champaign-Urbana 3 3 3 WRAL toll free elsewhere. 800 1:58 oil well I'm also going to give out an e-mail address it would be easier for you to send us a note. You can write to talk at w i l l dot u r U.S. dot edu any time during our conversation. And

Cal Skinner joins us by telephone. Good morning Mr. Skinner there. Thanks very much for being on the program. Yeah. My very brief introduction certainly didn't do justice to your entire career. I actually earned a master's degree in Public Administration. OK well very good. I guess I want to you know start by asking you what else would you like voters to know about you. Well let me tell you the idea that I got driving down the champagne Actually I'm driving down and I'm looking up the the median strips and the shoulders. They look like golf courses. This is the Prairie State. Why don't we plant them in prairie flowers. I mean would you like to see the seas of yellow flowers throughout Illinois. Now it could be a tourist attraction. And indeed we could probably do with fewer lawnmowers. That is people who drive on Mars right. How so. Well if you have progress you don't know it. Oh so yeah. And I guess one of the points of your resume is

that you've long been an advocate of environmental environmentalism that you are proud of your track record in terms of voting on environmental issues. Well back in one thousand fifty nine when I was between my junior and senior year in high school instead of going to Boise Boy state I went to NA. Knox College take a weeklong course in ecology. I mean that was 10 years before anybody knew what the word meant. Right. And in terms of well you mention prairie grass and there are obviously a lot of interest in this area and restoring a lot of the native prairie which has been obviously decimated I think is a probably appropriate word in the development of the state. What are the kinds of environmental issues would you like to pursue. Well I don't know how to give you a solution to this but obviously one of the largest environmental problems facing the state is the production the protection of groundwater in the part of the state I'm from much much of our drinking water comes from shallow aquifers and we have to make sure these aren't polluted.

What do you see are the main issues causing such pollution. You know obviously there are a number of issues pertaining to agriculture and perhaps urban runoff and so forth. Gary it's mainly gas stations Yeah. And how would you address that. Well I said I didn't have all the answers ok. Identify the problems. I would welcome input on what had to be done. OK. Well we have a caller waiting to talk with us. Let's you know the point of this is not for me to ask my question so much is a voter so let's let's go to our our toll free line one number for a listener in Clifton. Good morning you're in focus 580. Governor. Yes sir. I'm certainly glad you're running. And it gives us a choice. And let me say that I am sadly disappointed by the two candidates that have been put forward for us. The Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate. And I'm not going to

vote for a cannot good conscience vote for either one of them. And so I like your stance on the environment and. Well just let me say this I got a telephone call here on Thursday before the primary and the guy's answer he says well he was so and so with the Jim Ryan campaign and I say what's great about Jim Ryan. He says oh he's a great American and I said well if he's such a great American how come he didn't do anything to investigate George ran and selling of these driver's licenses. And he whoever it was hung up. And of course but all of it he wants to sue I have $500 for a gun permit and suggested that the voters turn in our Guns and I'm a veteran served in World War Two I'm proud of my country and proud of my service but I'm aggravated a bunch of stuff and I can't be either one of these candidates another issue right now. There are thirty seven empty beds Mandingo veterans home the

beds are there. If the spirit isn't there but they say they don't have the money to get the staff there. So anyway if you're going to address some of this fine and dandy but I think you do offer that TAR alternative for the voters. I'd have been happy if the sport had O'Malley. And of course he got an opt out I would have been happy with Roland Burris knowing the political hierarchy as one decided I did vote in a primary but only 32 percent of the people in my county voted. It's time we started voting these primaries do. Which county are you from. Eric away. OK I've been there been to your local radio station and let's see. Been on your local radio station been to your local newspaper. Let's talk about guns a little bit. I'm the only one that's proposing that there be a Personal Security Act under which a law abiding citizen would be able to take a short course in self-defense of use of a gun and then be able to get a permit

to have a gun. Now why am I doing this. The media reaction of most women I'm sure is they will think I'm nuts but there's a guy name. Dr. John Lott that is a site that is studied crime statistics in all three thousand United States counties. He's also been on this program. Well he's I mean he is he has done the best social science research I have ever read. He has based on based on 20 states that have passed similar laws one can predict violent crime and crime will go down over 2 percent. And that rape will go down over 3 percent. Now why would rape go down more. Well basically rapists are cowards. They're afraid to ask a woman out for a date in a in a bar so they waylay up them on the way home. Now how much less likely would they be to waylay someone that they thought might have a gun in her purse. This is this is one of the issues that will never make the debates in the state of Illinois because the two power party candidates have frozen me out. I mean they won't even but the liberal women voters sponsored debate

and the league had agreed that I could that I could be in that debate if if I percent of the people showed up in a in a in independent poll saying they would vote for me. Well guess what that poll came out last week from the Southtown economist the daily newspaper in the south suburbs. And you know on the 910 when nobody would notice because of 9/11 coming up they were going to try and announce are going to have four debates and it would just be the two power party candidates in that special. So much for democracy. Because I want to follow up all we need to hear from more people than just just these two candidates. So anyway leave it there but I'm glad you're running and it does give us an alternative. OK. Thanks very much for the call. Well the calls are welcome around Champaign-Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free anywhere you hear us around the state of Illinois. A

hundred to 2 2 9 4 5 5. We have another caller waiting in herb Anna next on line number one. Good morning you're on focus 580. All right I just want to quickly respond to a statement that just just made about rape. He said that rape is something that cowards do because they're afraid to ask women out on a date. That statement is so completely erroneous so completely offensive to women who have been raped. But I just want to make that comment. Rape is an act of violence it's committed for a variety of reasons and rape is often committed by people who actually know the victim and who are actually already going out with a victim or married to them. So I just want to say. Make that statement because I just don't want to allow a statement like that to stand. Well I'll take it up. You may actually know more about coming you undoubtedly know more about rape of women I certainly know more about rape of men. I'm the only legislator in the entire country thinking on prison rape so I'd be happy to be Enlightened which the colored state on the line so that you could

give me some references so I could. Better better represent why rape would go down over 3 percent. If a Personal Security Act was passed. Yeah I know that CNN had had stories when the guy from Louisiana when the serial rapist was active in the gov was holding press conferences urging women to go out and get trained in how to use a gun so they could protect themselves. So yeah I can't reconcile that public announcement by a governor with what he just said. Yeah I have a feeling we we could probably veer off into that topic but let's instead continue taking questions from listeners and we'll go next to someone on a cell phone on line number two. Good morning you're on focus 580. Yeah I thank you. It was mentioned that you favor an increased speed limit on Highways Act her I guess. That is correct. OK well if you're such a champion of the environment why would you add advocate something that

increases. The demand for petroleum and crease the burning of fossil fuels and all of them only exacerbate air pollution. Well just common sense I guess. I've driven more miles in this gubernatorial campaign than probably both the other candidates combined. I mean they've got airplanes will go bitch. Is using a racetrack owners airplane according to the day's Chicago Sun Times. And I can tell you as you obviously know there are long distances between towns in downstate Illinois. The Census Bureau reports that people are having to drive longer in downstate Illinois to get to and from work in the year 2000 than they did in the year 1900. It seems to me that people really don't want to spend time on the road. They want to spend time with their families. A fast I mean and I can also tell you that I know when the last time I drove 10 hours in downstate Illinois I passed one person going 55

miles an hour. So it makes sense to me the reason a speed limit of 65 miles an hour. OK also you know on the same subject it's my understanding that if a state does increase the speed limit on our highways they lose federal highway funds and to some states that doesn't make a difference such as Florida as an example because they have such an influx of tourism dollars. So I thought I'd mention that also another point well I'm not aware of that but I can tell you back in the 1970s I led the opposition to mandatory motorcycle helmet laws because Secretary of State Dixon in the Illinois Department of Transportation said the federal government would withdraw money if we did not pass a mandatory motorcycle helmet law. After I defeated the wall or defeated the proposal to to pass a law Department Transportation changed its lobbying tactics and went to the Unite United States government and said this is nonsense. You can't require us to have mandatory

motorcycle helmet laws in Illinois. And they won. We didn't lose any NEA federally. OK well thanks for taking my call. Okay thanks. Quick follow up. Then we've got another couple callers will go right to in terms of the speed limit issue. And you know the caller's point about increasing gas consumption and you know fossil fuels obviously are something that are problematic for a variety of reasons. And your stand on environmental issues I mean how how do you see those two issues being you know sort of I mean how do you how do you how do you determine what's the best approach. This is not 1973. I mean I was there or 1974 when Governor Walker completely without any Color of Law Order the speed limits to be lowered. Cars are much more efficient now than they were 1973. I live in Crystal Lake which is probably 65 miles northwest of Gary. I last smelled the steel mills now of course. You know they're shut now

but they were they were operating then I last smelled them in about nineteen seventy seven in Crystal Lake when the wind was blowing from the southeast. The air in Illinois is much cleaner than it was in the past. This is the other issue is especially for Illinois voters I think the attitudes to fuel in your point about. The pollution of the waterways. I know that MBT e as an additive has created a number of problems for a lot of people concerned about water quality. And I also know that a lot of people are very interested in ethanol as an alternative fuel attitude. Do you have particular stand on on I can tell you when I when I was running for Congress in one thousand eighty. I had two inventors from from Elgin I remember one of those one of theirs named one of their names Herb Hanson and they changed. They changed the fuel system in my little Pinto so that it would burn 85 percent alcohol ethanol

and 15 percent water. Now the problem with ethanol as a fuel is getting the last percentage of water out is really expensive. I do not understand why the Corn Growers Association hasn't hasn't followed up on this possibility. I mean it was in the dead of winter it was a really cold winter. A car stalled once and I think the Corn Growers Association ought to be ought to be having ethanol gas stations in the suburbs and they ought to get some cars of commuters and put that you know that shrink wrapped advertising put it around them and haven't had them driving in all the expressways and in and out of Chicago every year. I mean every day so that people can see that ethanol as fuel itself is an alternative. Our lines are all full so let's go and talk some more color as we're next to someone and loving to them one number four. Good morning young folks. 580 I got a comment to make I guess I've been less than new for a little bit and I think

the difference I can see between you and a lot of people they have on is that you're actually saying something a lot of people cannot vote for somebody that doesn't say something that they think that they've said that they want to hear if you know what I mean. Well I haven't had a focus group on what I'm going to hell I'm going to answer questions. Right now I just your rants are short and I can actually understand them even though I don't agree with all of them I appreciate understanding what you think. Well thank you very much. OK thanks very much for the call. We'll go next to a listener in Effingham County on number one. Good morning on focus. Morning I have something I would like discussed concerning our Veterans Commission. And as far as I'm concerned they might as well do away with that. They really aren't helping a very many people in this state. There's a heck of a lot of revenue that could be generated if these veterans will get into that disability that they're entitled to and a lot of these claims

are maybe 10 years old. And what I'm saying is I think that we need some state be able to stand up for an eye. And that's just one area where we're getting the short end of the revenue coming back to status. We're going to measure going over there and we're not enough Mac. My my former assistant my former legislative assistant Pete Steele who is Latino I mean I probably was the only Republican to have a Latino assistant in the entire General Assembly just got a job with. While processing are how shall I say representing veterans. Well he was my legislative assistant. I saw him get disability benefits for veterans who have been trying for 10 years. I mean they get them and have failed and Pete managed to you know to figure out how to do it so I can tell you I know something about. I mean I'm not a veteran. I do however know something about prying money out of the Veterans Administration that the Veterans Administration doesn't want to do it

doesn't want to do and I mean I don't know it personally but I know my system knows how to do it and let me tell you you will find people like that. OK thank you very much. Thanks so much for the call. There are several issues I want to make sure we talk about. Among them taxes during this hour. But look let's first we have several calls we need to make them wait. We'll go next to a listener in Champaign Illinois to Good Morning on focus on Ivy. One thing I'm really I'm sorry I'm not hearing the caller. What about the lack of affordable housing here at Dillard I particularly of the Chicago area and I'm wondering if you have any plans to try to encourage the construction of new affordable housing to make that practical it now of interest to developers to really concentrate on developing more affordable housing. Well I was listening to a call in show on a suburban radio station today from Bartlett Illinois where the guy was complaining that the local municipality was allowing all this new housing when there was no money to pay for the schools.

This is a double edged sword that I do not know how to solve. I can tell you that the movement in the suburbs is to try to make growth pay its own way. And when you when you put developer impact fees in it race of the price of the house and therefore you the if the housing becomes less affordable we do have an affordable housing corporation in McHenry County which is making I think fairly decent strides in helping people get into houses they were able to give a first time homeowner $5000 cash to help with the down payment. I don't know whether you have that in the champagne area and I don't know whether other parts of the metropolitan area have it but I mean if it's a real problem I do not have an answer. Right would you support requiring developers are part of a large ball player. Development had a number of units if they want to take advantage of any government subsidies. Well like what

government subsidies like credit that for acquiring property or other things that subsidies sell to terms of infrastructure that's provided. Oh well that's an interesting question but is it I mean I might support it in my local town but I don't think I want the state to impose that right. I mean Libertarians are not real big on government mandating things and I am. I mean even though I served as a Republican for 16 years in the general assembly I certainly am in that tradition. It seems to me it's a local option question but I mean Bo cost housing is such a huge problem that I don't think state government has the resources to to approach it I think I think the federal government really has to be the one that steps up to the plate. OK thank you for your answer this morning. Thanks for the call. We're about. At our midpoint here with Cal Skinner he's the

Libertarian Party candidate for Illinois governor. And your calls a welcome way to do is call us at Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 0 pick and talk about term limits for legislative leaders sometime. OK toll free 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5. Well you raise it let's talk about it. Well we feel that we have three of four legislative leaders that have been in power in Springfield for an average of 20 years. Pete Philip Mike Madigan and and Lee Daniels email Jones has been there for 10 years. I'm proposing a constitutional amendment which would limit the number of years that someone could be leader of a legislative caucus to six years. My theory is that if you have policy goals you ought to make it be able to make a real dent in them in six years. And if you stay around longer you really probably don't have any policy goals. I mean I would contend that none of the four legislative leaders have policy goals. They have they have power goals. I mean both Lee and Mike you know they both want to. And we're

for a time chairman of their respective parties. Is not good for the body politic. I served in the General Assembly 1070 for eight years and during that time the only house was a representative democracy. During the 1990s the eight years I served in the Illinois house was like the Politburo. You got the clap. I mean there is no reason for one hundred one hundred seventy three legislators to be in Springfield. I mean you were just rubber stamps at the leadership. That's not healthy for the body politic. What about term limits for members of the house and so well the only state Supreme Court has already ruled negatively on that in 1990. So you know that's that we can't do. I mean I don't you know I don't care if Pete and Mike and Lee and he will stay in their own district forever. Right it just seems to me that we all have a little rotation of of leadership it shouldn't just be Chicago. Well Chicago and Du Page County that have the the legislative leaders. I mean apart you know there are plenty of

qualified people all over the state. I could do at least as good a job and probably wouldn't end up getting investigated by the U.S. attorney's office. Well perhaps we'll have time to fall back on that let me defer to another caller on line number for someone on a cell phone. Good morning you're on focus 580. Good man your Excellence and then you're surly will make a fine governor of the electorate at its worst and not now. Now be careful there because if you say your Excellency you really play only the natural arrogance that politicians haven't you. I mean you don't want to win you've got to keep him humble. Well the governor says excellent see ANU's you will make a fine governor if elected in its wisdom should determine to make your governor. But how could the electorate accomplish dissimulate difficult task. Well we obviously need help. We are I mean I've got an 800 number to 8 6 6 shake up. As one radio interviewer said You mean as opposed to shakedown. I hadn't thought of it that way but it's 1 8 6 6 shake up we have a website which is

Skinner for gov dot org. The four is the number. It's Skinner for governor dot org and it's not completely updated but it's you know it's it's got plenty of stuff on it including all the press releases we've sent out in the campaign. You know accidents it's reported that you have the Cape making out toll free way. Yes or no toll ways are much more well maintained than freeways. Wouldn't it be better to build more toll lines rather than to convert toll as well you know libertarians have given me some some static on my proposal to free the tollways. But it always makes sense I mean user fees make sense if you make every street in the entire state a toll way we haven't done that. The people use the tollway have basically double taxation. They pay for the two hundred seventy four miles of roads on the tollway for their tolls but while they are driving on the toll way they've obviously paid gasoline tax when they bought their fuel. And indeed there's federal assistance that comes back from the federal government

for every mile of interstate roads whether it's a toll way or a freeway. I just think it's time to treat everybody not only equally. We're pleased to pay for those doorways to keep in good shape as you say. We're pleased to pay for those toll ways to keep them in good shape. We'll tell you there are lots of people would disagree with you. Yes thank you Your Excellency. All right. I never did call you reckless before I think that's a real hoot. OK well we have lawns are open and people would like to phone with their questions 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 around champion about how to get people to call and talk about cigarette smokers. Oh well we can do that I want to also make sure though we talk about taxes because you're the big part of your platform and I guess I want to ask you if you could write. The legislation on taxes in Illinois to make changes what with include. Well first of all you have to find a way to cut the state budget a lot. There was an institute called the American Center at

George Mason University that's headed up with a former member of parliament of the New Zealand Government and New Zealand has had a well. New Zealand the New Zealand Parliament shrunk its government. Just amazingly enough so this guy you know can start an institute and tell people how to how to do it. When I when I was eight I was in remission from politics basically for 12 years and after I ran for controller and Roland Burris won I was in the bureaucracy as a management sort of in the in-house management consultant for a while and I investigated all the state garages in the state of Illinois. All the ones that the Central Management Services Department have. And I tried to figure out how many hours of book work the mechanics did. Now my high school. I had a quite high school classmate that was earning probably $50000 a year when I was earning seventeen thousand dollars a year or 75 as a state representative in 1973 and he was earning that much because he could do many many many

more than eight hours of work on a car. I mean what that means is you know if it takes two hours to do a great job according to the book and you get it done and hour you get two hours of pay. Well I couldn't find a garage in the state garage where the average mechanic was doing eight hours of book work. So this means they're not really highly motivated. It seems to me that it is you know this is ready made for savings. Yeah. OK. And how I understand were you saying that there is waste in state government. I believe that's that's the point you're making. That's the point. Yeah I guess you know into you know shrinking state government shrinking the budget etc. I mean there are a lot of issues that pertain to how we tax in pay bills in terms of schools whether it be based on a property tax as it largely is right now or as many people have suggested but not have had the political will to pursue increasing the income

tax to pay for education. You know from the state level instead of property tax from the local level with a variety of issues. That pertain to how we're doing taxes. I certainly can directly talk to that. I'm not in favor of raising the income tax and making a swap with property taxes because the local property tax districts will come in and fill the void. Actually I have. There was a big attempt to do this back in 1973 when the resource equalizer formula was passed. This is right after you know the Republicans passed the income tax gov Ogilvy's income tax in one thousand one hundred sixty nine about one thousand seventy three the money was really rolling in state aid to education was increased an awful lot. I don't know whether you have dual districts or unit districts in your listening area but in my part of the world there are a lot of dual districts elementary separate elementary and high school districts. They tax local property at a higher combined rate than do most unit districts. Well in the legislation was the

I guess the best word I commuted is the hope that they would when they got all this extra money from the state. Cut the property tax rate. They didn't do it. I mean I I don't think that there is a possibility that it will that a swap will work. I mean the one thing you can say about property taxes is it's painful and that means that people pay attention to it. It also there is another I think advantage of the property tax and that is that it's all spent locally. I mean if you don't like the people the way the people are spending it you've got a chance to knock him out of office. I mean. I mean you saw what the legislators on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules just did. They changed the rule that said you had to say that new state employees had a six month probationary period or two and no months. I mean you know was it one month appropriate maybe they have no probationary period now. Now George Ryan proposed this obviously so he can stack the bureaucracy with his you know with

god knows his supporters like Esther some of them still out there. But the the legislature had to sign off on it and they didn't. So you know what your guess where they bought off how many jobs that each member of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules get. We have another caller talk with and let's go to them this is a listener in. Where are they calling from. Sampai and one number one excuse me next. Good morning. Good morning I just wanted to think well for getting this gentleman's viewpoint out I've been an independent voter all my life and I'm 60 years old and probably leaning towards a moderate conservative a little bit but it is indeed refreshing to hear a gentleman who is honest candid and will answer questions. And I would be curious to know and I'm very serious about considering to vote for Mr Skinner I've never heard of you before sir. But I would be very seriously interested to know about your viewpoints on cigarette taxing in the state of Illinois

and also what we can do to get people of your philosophy into and the federal government. I'll hang up and listen thank you very much for the call. Well I'm the only I'm the only one that was going around the state before the cigarette tax was proposed it was passed telling media outlets that there was no need for any tax increase and there wasn't a need because revenues in state government in the general revenue fund which is what the cigarette tax ended up going for. We're only down 2 percent. Now I go around to local newspapers and I say here. Ever had to cut your budget by 2 percent. All of them said yes I do. Then I'd say Well did you ever have to cut your budget by 5 percent. And a lot of them said yes and one guy from a daily newspaper all of your listeners have heard of that. How about 7 percent. So I conclude from this that no businessman no manager has any empathy with state government not being able to cut its budget by 2 percent. I mean the median in coming out of Springfield were just sold a bill of goods. Let me give you the comparison 20

that the general fund is twenty four billion dollars which is really too big a number to get your arms around. So let's say you were in an $24000 and you and you knew that your revenue that your take home pay was going to go down $500 that's about two percent. And the question I would ask is could you cope. You know how I'd cope my five year old son and I would go to McDonald's play land last off instead of going to see Lilo and Stitch at the movie theater with grandma and mom and dad. My son would have to wait to see it on video or on TV now and what the folks down in Springfield did was say hey I'm going to. $4000 this year. I know my income is going to be down $500 next year but I'm going to plan to spend twenty five thousand two hundred dollars. Nobody in the real world does that. I mean this is just nonsense. I mean and maybe I mean I've been. The fact that the budget people in Springfield I served on the Appropriations Committee for at least 10 out of the 16 years I was there and perhaps

even more than that they never look at last year's expenditures. They look at last year's budget. Well that people don't do that. Businesses don't do that. Only government does that and it makes notes. No sense at all. And I guess my my first job was with the budget bureau in Washington back so far ago it was called the budget bureau not the Office of Management Budget and it was during the Lyndon Johnson administration. I hesitate to add it was a civil service job. I mean I was the only one of the budget bureau that would admit to being a Republican public like I should a stick stuck around maybe Nixon would've been elected not be the only Republican you could find in a budget bureau but then again maybe it's maybe in jail now. Well I think you're making. Point clear. But you know there's also a lot of consternation on the part of school districts and you know universities who are facing not just you know the issue of not having more money the next year but actually are cutting back. And you know most of the

costs are tied up in salaries and you know these are working people who are faced with with actually less money themselves as families and members of the community. Well join the real world I guess is what I would say. I mean there are lots of people that have less take home pay this year than last year. And where is that sad. I mean you know all the ass Most workers what they get a three and a half percent raise this year. Well actually a lot of people didn't get any raises here and I'm talking about the state employees. I mean the union the aft my contract had them have an increase in salary. Well United Airlines was asking all of its nonunion employees to take a 10 percent pay cut. George George never asked the nonunion employees in state government to take a 10 percent pay cut. I mean does anybody really believe these folks that are earning $80000 and up could earn that much on the outside in private enterprise. Yeah but there are a lot of people who are making you know 18000 20000 trying to raise a family on that.

Well there are union employees well they're not a lot of union employees of state government or an $18000. I mean when I was there and I remember in in the mid 80s the secretaries were getting 24000. Yeah well you know I guess you know I understand you're saying but a lot of teachers and you know people who are not in the state system per se but you know the school districts the people who I can tell you teachers in my part of the world are not poorly paid I mean I graduated from high school in one thousand sixty and at least five years ago one of my high school classmates who was a history teacher retired earning $70000 a year he was earning more than I was earning and he wasn't working 12 hours you know 12 hours 12 months a year. Let's go to our next caller this is a listener in still on line number four. Good morning you're on focus 580. Good morning to you know I wanted to so agree with your opening statement about not knowing the highway. I mean I think it would be a very eye opening exercise to calculate the amount of gasoline that we are going to send our young people to

harm's way in the Middle East over just to keep those down. Well it makes it makes no sense at all. Right I mean other thing remember do you remember fart of flowers. You know you remember far enough back that the state didn't have full time people sitting in garages during the winter waiting for it to snow that they had snow birds they'd hire farmers and they'd say Hey would you like to work for us just to plow the roads when it snows. Well you know my father my grandfather was a farmer. He played bridge during the during the winter. I'm sure if he had you know. Part time job he you know he would have been delighted. Yeah then maybe we wouldn't have to have more prisons to hire the farmers who are no longer able to make a living here. I didn't I didn't know our prisons were a record for sure. You're bribing my education. Oh yes well that's who runs prisons is is a local pharmacy. Another thing I wanted to mention was this is just an hour

south of Kankakee along Highway 57 the pruning crews the crews that tree has mutilated the trees that are along there and of course that all just for the mowers so they don't grab themselves or something else knowing but I mean if this made everything let us leave and then they come along land thing in the year and mow all the weeds and reeds and things like that and leave it there. It just looks like leaves and they leave stubble. Yeah and I think we could turn our interstate highways into a into a tourist trap. Basically the state of Texas. It has planted native plants in the in the median strip and on the shoulders. I mean I can just imagine somebody driving up 57 and syncs sees of yellow flowers Coreopsis I guess would be in bloom this time of year another fall sunflowers another other three plants that have yellow flowers I mean it would be just be stunning.

Because the caller's question we have about five minutes left with Cal Skinner he's a libertarian Libertarian Party candidate for Illinois governor. And if you want to call real quick we'll get you in 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 toll free 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. We have an e-mail question. And let me just read this from a listener who says I am not familiar with the libertarian system on the spectrum between conservative and liberal. Where does a libertarian fall. One of the party objectives and then also adds What are your views on agriculture and how will you help Illinois farmers. Well I can go back and talk about one of the first bills I passed in 1073 it was the agricultural assessment Bill for the downstate 100 counties. I'm the one that passed that bill. My last year in office and the 1070 is the largest grain elevator bankruptcy occurred in Western my part of rural and not to cal but rural Kane County was right on the DeKalb Kane County line. And I conceived the idea of having a green insurance fund that would be similar to the Federal

Deposit Insurance Corporation. I mean how can people put the. Money the banks farmers put there what. What is their money the equal of their money their grain and grain elevators and there was no protection. I did not get that bill passed. God bless Neil Hartigan he figured out how to finance it. But I promoted it and conceived of the idea and I mention that merely to suggest that when there was a problem in the farm community even though I am you know two generations off the farm I think I can come up with creative ideas to help solve the problem that I haven't answered all the question What was the rest of it was basically a question about the libertarian point of view. I am not a pure libertarian. I mean they accept me warts and all. In the beginning they asked. You know they think they want to me to be make this a campaign about drugs he said look I'm not comfortable with that. I'm not going to make this a campaign about drugs. I mean having said that I should point out that I did vote for medical use of marijuana

for glaucoma. Back in 1978 or 79 when the only optometrist in the House a Republican from DeKalb marshalled the facts and it made sense to me. Generally I'm a politician that will follow the facts where they take me whether or not it is the popular place to go. If you're interested in the Libertarian Party you could go to let's see what the All-Knowing website is. I l dot L P dot org I believe. Libertarians are not between the Conservatives and the liberals. They they take part of they take part of the liberal philosophy and they take part of the conservative philosophy and they they really I mean they are. I believe and I hope I've demonstrated they are the they are the party of ideas. I mean I haven't heard an original idea Rob we're going to jam Ryan through this entire campaign. We have talked about cigarettes. We have to talk about cigarettes because we talked about how there wasn't a need for a cigarette tax but we didn't talk about how Jim Ryan raised the price of cigarettes a buck 50 with the tobacco settlement suit and now La Gloire had spent over

$300000 telling tobacco telling cigarette smokers he was going to and everybody else that he was going to raise the price of cigarettes by 42 cents a pack if he got elected. And of course both are Republican Democratic allies increase the price of cigarettes by 40 cents a pack this last session and they didn't need to. I think that cigarette smokers are the hidden minority in this election. They're 26 percent of the vote in the Republicans and Democrats have been kicking them around for the last 10 to 15 years and I don't know why any cigarette smoker would vote Republican or Democrat. We have a caller on the try to squeeze in we just have about two or three minutes left. Some one on one the one in Champaign. Good morning. Hello hello. Yes thank you for taking my call. I just had a quick question I'll try to make it as brief as they can. You were talking about lowering taxes and how we didn't need to tax all the cigarette tax when we were raising property taxes you are talking about those issues. My question is why I mean if there's so much need now in order for all these new programs and

subsidies and grants and so on why can't we just move some of the tax revenues that we've already been receiving. That of lowering the taxes. Why can't we just move those in the programs that we do need. Well of course we could I mean my atrocity of this of this season is one hundred thirteen thousand dollars that the Department of Commerce gave to a Tennessee entrepreneur to build a sick I mean must be seed money to build a Six Million Dollar water park on Red Lake next to a state subsidize failing hotel. I mean it's a Field of Dreams approach to a water park I'm sure everybody in Champaign would drive around like you got a water water park now. If we got that. I mean we've got money to give to a guy in Tennessee. We don't have a budget crisis this year. OK. Well I was just hoping that you would maybe touch base on some of the different programs we would take as far as like housing school grants. Well I could I could tell you how you can save one hundred twenty two hundred eighty million dollars right off the bat. You could instead of having instead of having each department that buys pharmaceutical drugs for

its its clients have one contract with each pharmaceutical company now Republicans would never do that because they get money from pharmaceutical companies. Democrats would do it I believe. And certainly I would as a libertarian. So Martin again my question is What would you do with that money would you give it back to the taxpayers or recreation and I really I really think that's I mean welfare is down 74 percent and so far the taxpayers haven't gotten a dime of a welfare reform dividend. I mean it's time to share some up with the taxpayers. I hope it is the caller's question we hear just about at the end of our time. And I just want to give you a chance if you'd like to give out your website address and whatever other information people the 800 number is 8 6 6 shake up. The website is Skinner for gov dot org. The four is a four. Well I'm going to find out what what Mike Royko said about me in one thousand seventy seven. I mean I'm probably the only part the only politicians that are he's ever called honest. You'll be you'll be really

interested I mean you'll be surprised at the context. Well we appreciate your time a great deal with it is very important to have these conversations with people running for public office and so thanks very much for spending time with us. Well thank you for the opportunity to talk to you or if you talk to your audience. Cal Skinner is the Libertarian Party candidate for Illinois governor.