by 
Meg Loughran Cappel, Illinois Senate 49th District Democratic nominee. | Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times
Her top priorities include maintaining roads and bridges, lowering property taxes and making higher education more affordable.
Candidate profile
Meg Loughran Cappel
Running for: State Senate–49th District
Political party affiliation: Democrat
Political/civic background: Joliet Township High School School Board–elected 2017
Member of: Joliet Township High School Foundation Board
Joliet Township Discipline Committee
Illinois Association of School Board Delegate
Shorewood Chamber of Commerce
Choir Parents Association of Joliet West High School
Occupation: special education teacher
Education: Bachelors in Special Education from Illinois Benedictine College (now Benedictine University)–1995
Masters in Leadership from Lewis University–2017
Campaign website: megforillinois.com/
Facebook: Meg Loughran Cappel for IL State Senate 49th
Instagram: megloughrancappel
The Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board sent nominees for the Illinois Senate a list of questions to find out their views on a range of important issues facing the state of Illinois and their districts. Meg Loughran Cappel submitted the following responses:
The COVID-19 pandemic has hammered the finances of Illinois. The state is staring at a $6.2 billion budget shortfall in this fiscal year. What should be done? Please be specific.
We can’t keep placing the burden of Illinois’s financial shortcomings on the backs of working families like mine. If passed, the Fair Tax will give a tax break to 97% of families while allowing us to provide revenue for our unfunded mandates. Additionally, Illinois needs to follow through on the restructuring of our education funding formula in order to alleviate the burden of property taxes on working families, and we need to refinance our pension obligations in order to ensure that workers that have paid into our state pension plan are given the pensions they have been promised.
What grade — “A” to “F” — would you give Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic? Please explain. What, if anything, should he have done differently?
A-. In the absence of a clear pandemic response plan from our federal government, Governor Pritzker has been forced to take matters into his own hands under imperfect circumstances. Illinois has maintained a low positivity rate, been able to secure loans for small businesses, and given authority to local governments with regards to their approach to pandemic regulations. I don’t give him a perfect grade though because he has not been perfect. The original Restore Illinois Health Regions were unfair to places like the 49th District—which were unnecessarily looped in with Cook County—and I felt that not labeling churches an “essential service” off the get-go was also a mistake; however, to Governor Pritzker’s credit, he has remained attentive to constituents’ concerns throughout the pandemic and made adjustments to his plan on a rolling basis, including restructuring the Restore Illinois Health Regions and opening up churches.
In the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, legislatures in some states have taken up the issue of police reform. Should Illinois do the same? If so, what would that look like?
As a special education teacher, I am held to the highest ethical standard in …read more
Source:: Chicago Sun Times
