Speaker 1: Welcome to Talking Cities. I'm Diane Moca. We are talking to several candidates for governor here in Illinois, and I am with candidate Jesse Sullivan. He is one of six Republicans who are looking to grab that coveted spot to challenge incumbent governor JB Pritzker. Thanks for joining us, Jesse, to talk about those issues that are very important to all of us, and we want to jump right in and get started with economic development, something that you know about because you have a business that helps other businesses, but as Governor, what would you do to increase economic development in our state? Speaker 2: So, like you mentioned, I really have created jobs around the world by backing some of the best entrepreneurs. And we're going to do that right here in Illinois at a time when we see Caterpillar leaving. Now Citadel is leaving, Boeing. Businesses are fleeing our state, and a decade ago, the CEO of caterpillar said, "What we need to do is relieve pressure on taxpayers." And so I am the only candidate in this race that signed a taxpayer protection pledge saying, "I refuse to raise taxes on the people of Illinois. I will veto any bill that comes across my desk that raises taxes." No other candidate has done that and so that's how we're going to cut 10 billion dollars from the budget. Under JB Pritzker, he's raised the budget 20%. The average working family is paying 2,000 dollars more in taxes under JB Pritzker. I'm going to cut the size of government, relieve pressure on taxpayers, and recruit businesses and entrepreneurs to flourish in the State of Illinois. Speaker 1: So, as a small business owner myself, I know that policies like that can often help big businesses, but the really small businesses, the mom and pops that employ so many people, a lot of times, they just need the resources to get off the ground, to get going, to make payroll, to make it from week to week, and cutting taxes isn't necessarily going to make a big difference like grants or funding or incubators or programs or ways to find workers. So, can you address any of those issues, and how you might tackle those? Speaker 2: Yeah, sure. So, I would push back a little bit that some of the largest costs for a business might be those property tax bills that they're having to face in the state, and being able to relieve that pressure. We are the highest property tax state in the nation. My competitor Darren Bailey, he raised property taxes 14 times. And so we need someone who is going to cut our property taxes, and how we do that is by reducing the overall size of government. Also, I don't think that government should be picking winners and losers. What they need to do is back out. Actually, we need to reduce the regulatory burden on small business owners and reduce the taxpayer burden. Also, you look at energy costs, the inputs for manufacturing sector. JB Pritzker passed the Green New Deal for Illinois that is raising energy costs for consumers, average working families, also for our businesses. So, we need somebody who's going to stand up for small business owners. Even with all these COVID lockdown mandates, I am pro small business. I am pro freedom. If you want a Governor like Ron DeSantis and the way he led during COVID, then I will be the Ron DeSantis of the Midwest, prioritizing liberty and freedom and small business. Speaker 1: One of the things we hear from small businesses is they're struggling to find workers to fill not just service jobs, but also knowledge jobs, and there are a lot of knowledge workers that are graduating from our higher education institutions, and leaving the state. And so how can you address the gap between this demand for workers and then the lack of workers, the lack of training, even the lack of those institutions to keep up with teaching what's the latest in tech. Speaker 2: This is a tragedy. Handouts are not free. They've cost us in our society a lot, because people are still relying on government subsidies rather than going back to work. And so what we need to do is promote a free economy, not promote handouts, get back to our conservative values. That private sector is how you grow and create jobs, not government handouts. And so the other piece of this is our education system is failing our young children. We need an education system that works. It's not a problem of money. It's a problem of power, and right now the teachers unions, especially in Chicago, have all of the power, and we need somebody who is going to bring in competition into our education system. We're calling for school choice, where parents can have their tax dollars go and follow their child to send them to whatever school they'd like. If they wanted to send them to a trade school and a school that is an industry led education to create a pathway for this talent to get back into our workforce, that's what we need to do, and I've been in the technology sector. For one tech job created, there's five additional local service jobs created. We need to create the tech jobs of the future here in Illinois. We need an innovation Governor. I was at Stanford Business School. I know how to create technology jobs in the knowledge economy. I also know how to create small business growth. And so we're going to do it when I become Governor. Speaker 1: That sounds good, but is there a roadmap to get there? It sounds like a slogan, but how do you actually do it without money, especially? You're saying, "Just do it by let the free economy sort of run its course," but that doesn't always work for everyone. There's a lot of disadvantaged people out there that you don't know where to turn. Speaker 2: Well, look, we lost 120,000 people out of the State of Illinois last year. Where did they go? They went to the free states of Florida and of Texas. Those are zero income tax states. We need to compete in the State of Illinois and we can't compete right now. Businesses are fleeing to lower tax environments. They're fleeing to low regulatory environments. In Illinois, we've got the exact opposite. What we really need is a fighter in the Governor's office who understands business, who is not going to be picking winners and losers in different industries. You look at JB Pritzker and his Green New Deal, just picking out which one should win, which should lose. You know who really loses in that situation are the citizens of Illinois and our small businesses? So, I'm going to be a pro small business Governor by taking the lead, by pulling back regulations, lowering our taxes, not creating all of these government funded programs that really only the well connected end up getting the resource dollars anyway. These corrupt insiders give them out to their special interests and friends. I don't owe anybody anything in this system. I'm going to step in and make sure I work for the taxpayer and for these small businesses. Speaker 1: Well, you talked about winners and losers, and we're going to see on Tuesday who the winners are and then we will know what's going to be the next step in this election for Governor, and I thank you for joining us Jesse Sullivan. Speaker 2: Great. Thank you so much. Please vote on June 28th for a conservative that can win. Speaker 1: For Talking Cities, I'm Diane Moca.