Speaking Truth to Power

1. Visible, Responsive Representation

• Point: Hoffman has a long, steady record but is rarely seen at neighborhood or community forums, so there’s a “missing in action” perception.

• Action: Pledge to hold quarterly open forums in every community (in-person and virtual), with

regular public updates and office hours.

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2. Fix the System: Fair Maps and True Local Control

• Point: Voters in the Belleville/Metro East area (including Shiloh) feel ignored by distorted district maps. Recent redistricting diluted Black and minority voices and even some suburbs feel sidelined by Springfield politics.

• Action: Lead a push for independent redistricting and more local say on school funding, economic development, and police accountability. Commit to advocating for every community, not just party-line policy.

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3. Public Safety and Infrastructure (Beyond Grants)

• Point: Hoffman touts bringing in grants for police, fire, and infrastructure, but local towns still face flooding, safety, and resource gaps.

• Action: Promise a transparent, trackable plan for equitable allocation of such funds. Push for comprehensive flood mitigation, especially for under-resourced areas.
   

4. Education Funding: Accountability and Results

• Point: There’s new funding for local schools and libraries, but parents worry about classroom crowding, cell phone discipline, and lack of real-world skills prep.

• Action: Support public PTA groups for each community that can give parents voices in designing curriculums around necessary skills, especially in regards to new funding; commit to regular audits showing where the dollars go.
   

5. Economic Opportunity and Tax Fairness

• Point: The new “Revenue Omnibus” bill brings tax changes, but working families and small businesses are anxious about rising costs.

• Action: Propose a “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” ensuring every new tax or fee is matched by a concrete improvement in services or infrastructure, with visible citizen oversight.
   

6. Equity, Inclusion, Anti-Gerrymandering

• Point: Strong complaints about gerrymandered districts, especially as they affect communities of color and dilute certain voting blocs; an issue for many in the Metro East area.

• Action: Make this a central theme (“All voices counted, all neighborhoods respected.”) Promise to publish clear, simple maps and voter guides, and support lawsuits/legislation for fair district lines (subject to change if we go into a full-on gerrymandering war (If it’s going down, it’s going down))
   

7. Honest, Forward-Looking Social Policy

• Point: Voters want pragmatic, solutions on issues like home ownership, road safety, and community policing, rather than idealistic ones that never begin implementation. Hoffman supports incremental reforms, but there’s appetite for bolder leadership.

• Action: Call for “real world” pilot programs in the district, whether for affordable homeownership, traffic safety, or innovative workforce training. Give people access to the financial literacy and life skills training they require.
   

Messaging Advantages:

• Energy & Accessibility: “You’ll always find me at your table, not just on a letterhead.”

• Accountability: Public “report cards” on district spending and policy results.

• Bipartisan Solutions: “We’re for people, not just for parties.”

• Defender of Local Voices: Stand against both partisan overreach and corporate interests flooding Illinois politics.

1. Regional Housing and Homelessness Coalition

• Proposal: Launch a local task force uniting municipalities, nonprofits, faith groups, and businesses for shared strategies on homelessness and affordable housing; drawing from the “Home Illinois” plan. Emphasize permanent supportive housing, cross-agency case management, and integrated access to healthcare, employment, and legal aid.

• Rationale: Homelessness requires “deep collaboration” across education, health, community, and housing systems. Collaborative approaches have demonstrated success in grant-winning Illinois communities and can secure additional state resources by showing unified local effort.
   

2. Community Action Partnership Hubs

• Proposal: Expand Community Action Agency-style hubs in St. Clair County, offering walk-in help for energy bills, food security, job training, temporary shelter, and financial counseling.

• Rationale: Programs like CSBG (Community Services Block Grant) already support these services; a centrally marketed physical or digital hub can streamline access across agencies and improve efficiency for struggling families and the working poor. Make these hubs partnership-driven, with local employers, schools, and credit unions participating.
   

3. Cost-of-Living Refund and EITC Expansion Advocacy

• Proposal: Push to further expand the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and support opt-out payment programs that provide automatic monthly credits to low- and middle-income families, including caregivers and students; not just annual lump sums.

• Rationale: A modernized EITC helps people facing rising costs, lifts working families out of poverty, buffers those just above poverty, and puts money directly into local economies. Expanding EITC eligibility and outreach creates broad-based, bipartisan impact.
   

4. Food Equity and School-Community Nutrition Partnerships

• Proposal: Partner with area school districts, food banks, and grocers to ensure year-round access to healthy meals for both students and families; expanding “community kitchen” programs, summer nutrition, and affordable produce co-ops.

• Rationale: Food insecurity hits both the lowest-income and many “just managing” families. School-based meal partnerships leverage existing infrastructure; collaboration with local retailers and farmers can keep dollars circulating inside the district.
   

5. Education & Workforce Bridge Programs

• Proposal: Support dual credit, adult re-skilling, and apprenticeship programs connecting high schools, community colleges (such as SWIC), and local employers. Develop business-education roundtables to advise on workforce needs and facilitate paid internships for under-resourced youth and adults.

• Rationale: The middle class in Illinois is shrinking; bridging education and workforce with real pathways boosts upward mobility for all residents, especially those stuck in low-wage work.
   

6. Trauma-Informed and Healing-Centered Approaches

• Proposal: Implement trauma-informed policymaking and services throughout public agencies and schools, leveraging the recommendations from the Illinois ACEs Response Collaborative and the Healing-Centered Illinois Task Force.

• Rationale: Trauma and adversity disproportionately affect poor and at-risk populations, but also undermine wellbeing for the broader middle class. Healing-centered systems yield healthier, safer, and more productive communities.
   

7. Guaranteed Income and Direct Cash Pilot Programs

• Proposal: Coordinate with regional and state partners to create pilot programs for guaranteed basic income or direct cash transfers for struggling families (potentially modeled after ESIL’s successful pilots in Illinois).

• Rationale: Short-term cash assistance builds resilience, prevents homelessness, and stabilizes working- and middle-class families during crises, while supporting local retailers and service providers.

1. “Illinois Can Afford Progress. 113 Deserves Its Share”

• State Budget: Illinois passed a record $55.2B budget for 2026; a $2B jump from last year, with nearly $800M in new taxes and fund sweeps to prop it up[1][2][3]. The state general funds alone hold projected revenue of $53.3B for 2025, and the “rainy day” (stabilization) fund is set to surpass $2.3B.

• District 113’s Allocation? Most voters do not know how much District 113 receives, and transparency is lacking. State funds and federal aid are often distributed opaquely.

• Demand public guarantees that District 113 receives a fair percentage of new state spending, and regular, published updates showing dollars received and spent.
   

2. “Tax Credits that Really Help Ordinary Families”

• Child Tax Credit Reality: Legislators talk up billions, but the actual new Illinois Child Tax Credit is capped at just over $600 per qualified family for 2025; less than the $6,000 figure that previously caught your attention.

• It’s only available to families with children under 12 who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, mainly low to moderate-income brackets.

• Compare: In the 2024 tax year, most families got $170–$300: a far cry from meaningful relief in an economy with ballooning costs.

• Your Goal: Pledge to fight for a *real* $2,000–$3,000 state child tax credit, phased for middle-class families as well as the working poor, showing what the vast Illinois budget could actually do if priorities changed.
   

3. “Spend Smarter, Not Just More; Where’s the Oversight?”

• State spending *grows* each year, but oversight is weak. Legislators passed House Bill 5896 to force more reporting of how Springfield moves and uses taxpayer money, but as of 2025, line-item transparency still lags and fund transfers often go unreported[10].

• Hoffman’s voted for ever-larger budgets, and taken credit for “delivering funds,” but hasn’t led on true fiscal transparency or pushed for district-level dashboards showing what each community receives vs. what’s promised.

• Your Goal: Commit to district-level “Budget Receipt Reports” every session: detailing what 113 gets, and how you’ll push until it matches our population’s fair share. Hold a yearly public audit (with local citizens/press) reviewing all spending brought back to the district.
   

4. “Don’t Let 113 Become an Afterthought”

• State government manages around $30B in investments for the public and local governments, but smaller and mid-sized districts like ours often get bypassed for projects in big-city or politically connected areas.

• Community Funding Guarantee: a law requiring that every district receives a fair,population-weighted share of capital projects, infrastructure money, and emergency funds, published quarterly on a public state dashboard.
   

5. “Concrete Goals for Real Impact”

• Within 12 months: Deliver a detailed, line-by-line summary of new money (state and federal) brought to every school, nonprofit, and public service provider in District 113; compare it to similarly sized districts.

• Next 2 years: Raise district-level child tax relief by at least $1,000 per qualifying family.

• Immediate demand: A public hearing in Springfield with the Budget Committee to justify to voters how and why District 113’s allocation meets or misses state equity and need targets.

• “Springfield isn’t broke; Springfield’s priorities are. District 113 deserves a seat at the grown-up’s table and a clear accounting of our fair share.”

• “$55B is enough to change lives, but the same old votes in Springfield have brought the same old crumbs home. With new leadership, we can demand our slice is finally on the plate; not just on campaign flyers.”

• “If the state can find the money for $2B more in spending and $800M in new taxes, we can also find the money for real child tax credits, honest budgeting, and guarantees that no community gets left behind.”
   

We’ll use the state’s own numbers and Hoffman's underwhelming record on transparency and
fair district funding to set the stage for a campaign of results, accountability, and genuine local
investment.

1. Guarantee Safe and Healing Schools for Every Child:

• Launch a district-wide “Trauma-Free Schools” initiative: ensure every public school has counselors trained in trauma-informed care, plus access to after-school wellness programs, by 2027.

• Set a public goal to cut classroom violence, bullying, and suspensions by 50% within three years through restorative practice and wrap-around mental health support.
   

2. Deliver Targeted Funds to the Poorest Neighborhoods

• Advocate for a minimum 20% funding increase to schools and community centers in Brooklyn, Washington Park, and other under-resourced areas, making sure the dollars and results are updated quarterly for the public to see

• Use “equity mapping” to publish where the money goes and who benefits.
   

3. Achieve True Educational Equity and College Readiness:

• Push for every high school in District 113 to join Illinois’ top “60 by 25” graduation and postsecondary attainment network, closing the college/career readiness gap for Black, brown, and poor students by at least 10% by 2028.
   

4. Expand Pathways Out of Poverty: Workforce Equity for All:

• Partner with community colleges to double enrollment in the Workforce Equity Initiative so every young adult or displaced worker can access a job pathway paying at least 30% above the regional living wage.

• Advocate to expand these programs in high-need sectors and publish success rates annually.
   

5. End Homelessness and Protect Vulnerable Families:

• Support and implement “Home Illinois” strategies, aiming to reduce homelessness in District 113 by at least 30% by 2030, especially among children and families and closing the Black-white homeless disparity.

• Push for a full ban on criminalizing the unhoused just for being unhoused, and replace aggressive enforcement with access to proven housing-first models and coordinated wrap-around services.
   

6. Guarantee Every Vote Counts; No Barriers, No Exclusions

• Champion accessible voting reforms: online and remote voting for those with disabilities, strict anti-poll consolidation safeguards, multilingual education, and robust voter registration drives to increase Black and working-class turnout by 15% by 2028.
   

7. Fiscal Transparency and Community Accountability:

• Commit to issuing detailed district-level “Budget Receipt Reports” every session, showing exactly what money 113 receives, where it gets spent, and how it improves lives—publicly audited with community input every year.

• Fight for legislation that guarantees a fair, population-based share of new state funds for District 113.
   

8. Champion Accountability and Ethical Leadership:

• Pledge to support full bans on lobbying by elected officials, tougher “revolving door” laws (2-year ban before lobbying after office), and immediate removal from leadership roles if charged with corruption or disparate crimes, making Illinois a national leader in clean governance.
   

9. City-Specific Solutions for City-Specific Problems:

• Start an annual “District 113 Mayors’ Summit” to direct state, city, and grant funding to the unique needs of every community, from flood mitigation to violence prevention to public transit and small business grants.

• Report specific progress for each city in an annual State of the District address.
   

10. Provide Real Relief for Working and Middle-Class Families:

• Fight to triple the Illinois Child Tax Credit for qualifying households, raising real support to at least $2,000 per child annually, indexed for inflation. Make District 113 the model for showcasing how new credits lift children up and expand the middle class.
   

11. Educate and Mitigate Harmful Federal Overreach:

• Identify and publicize federal policies harming our communities (Examples: cuts to programs that provide farm-fresh food to schools and food banks took over $1b of healthy out of our children' s mouths; cuts to science and health studies nationwide have closed studies for cancer, alzheimer’s, and disparate diseases that affect our children; ripping away of climate protections leads to our air and water becoming toxic, increasing health risks in children especially.)

• Work to provide local solutions to such issues to protect our community members (partner local farms to schools directly and reimplement distribution programs through reallocation of tax funding; allow misplaced scientists and doctors access to college and university labs in exchange for teaching the next generation; community climate change education initiatives and public water and air quality recording)

• Protect the good people of District 113 and Illinois from whatever outside threats appear no matter the cost

Message of Hope: “This isn’t just a list of goals or promises; it’s a contract of progress that every one of us will be able to follow, measure, and feel. With your trust, I’ll throw everything I have
into healing our schools, shining a light on every hidden street, breaking every barrier to voting, and fighting for a government that serves you transparently, honestly, and fearlessly. District 113
will be the place where hope becomes action, and action becomes history.

I’m not just running to resist chaos; you’re running to build, to unite, and to win lasting change that lifts up every child, every family, and every neighborhood in our district and beyond.