Rabine Wants Jobs to Take Priority
Suburban Chicago businessman Gary Rabine will announce his candidacy for Governor Tuesday. Monday, he told The Illinoize creating jobs, lowering property taxes, and addressing the state’s pension problems are among his top priorities.
Gary Rabine says he isn’t like the last two Illinois governors. Bruce Rauner, a Republican venture capitalist, had wealth estimated in the hundreds of millions. Democrat JB Pritzker, a hedge fund manager and heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, is a billionaire.
Rabine, 57, who lives in exurban Bull Valley in McHenry County, is wealthy, to be sure, but says his wealth came from hard work in businesses like paving and roofing. He's a politician who may truly fit better in work boots, his preference is for Red Wings or Timberlands, than for the leather-soled oxfords sliding around the Statehouse floor.
“I’m not a billionaire, I’m not close to being a billionaire,” Rabine told The Illinoize the night before he launches his long-expected campaign for the Republican nomination for Governor. “I’ve been fortunate enough to build businesses here in Illinois that have created nice success for me, for sure. But the difference is, in my opinion, is 20 years of my career has been in the labor force. I paved parking lots and driveways and concrete and asphalt and drove a truck. I had a CDL license all the way up until 8 or 9 years ago. [They were] hard, fun, dirty jobs, and I love it.”
Rabine repeatedly hammered on Illinois’ high property taxes. The state doesn’t charge a property tax, and shifting school and local government funding would cost billions the state doesn’t have. Rabine suggested a property tax freeze followed by caps, similar to Indiana.
“It doesn’t come without some type of tightening of the belt,” he said.
Rabine says making a dent in the state’s $100 billion-plus unfunded pension liability requires reform, too. Whether it comes from a new tier for new employees, limiting people who draw multiple pensions, or changing the state constitution, he says the state needs to pursue its options.
“That’s not sustainable,” he said. “If you can start with the issues of that first, and figure out how to protect these pensions for people who lived their lives planning on these pensions. How do we fix that so these pensioners can get a check the rest of their lives? Maybe without people getting two, three, four checks. That might help. Maybe limiting that number somehow, I’m not sure.”
Rabine says he likes a plan floated by conservative policy commentator Ted Dabrowski, which would force all state employees into 401k-style plans, suspend cost of living increases, and require retirees to pay for health care. Dabrowski has also recommended amending the state constitution to allow the legislature to diminish pension benefits.
Rabine didn’t identify ways to balance the state budget long term, except to say he wants to encourage businesses to relocate to Illinois to broaden the tax base.
Rabine was a supporter of former President Donald Trump, even hosting a fundraiser on behalf of the 45th President. He knows Trump is a sensitive topic in a general election, but believes Trump’s economic record speaks for itself.
“The Trump administration was the best job creating presidency in my lifetime, maybe the history of our country,” Rabine said. “There’s nobody that brought jobs back to America like that administration did. I admire that. If I can do that, even 60% of that, per capita, in Illinois, we change our state. It’s a whole different place three or four years from now.”
Rabine opposed Governor JB Pritzker’s extended limitations on businesses and school closures. He says he usually wears a mask in public. While he previously had COVID-19, Rabine says he has no plans to receive the vaccine “yet.”
He’s the third candidate to formally announce his entry in the race. Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) and former Sen. Paul Schimpf have also jumped in the GOP race. Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) and Illinois’ National RNC Committeeman, Richard Porter, have both said they’re considering running.
You can watch our entire interview with Rabine here.