Gubernatorial candidate Pawar brings platform to Galesburg

Oct. 06--GALESBURG -- Illinois gubernatorial candidate Ameya Pawar visited Galesburg Friday to share his "New Deal for Illinois" platform with voters and address their concerns on issues ranging from education funding to power struggles in Illinois government.

Pawar, a Chicago City Council alderman for the city's 47th ward, hosted the town hall event at the Galesburg Public Library as part of his "Don't Close our Communities" tour. Pawar and his running mate, Cairo Mayor Tyrone Coleman, visited 14 cities across the state in four days for the tour.

Though progressive in philosophy, Pawar emphasized that he was frustrated with many on both the right and left for refusing to listen to each other's opinions, resulting in no understanding of each other's positions and no compromises. Pawar and Coleman also noted how state politicians from both parties have neglected to fix ongoing economic problems in rural and downstate Illinois, while bestowing much attention on the northern part of the state.

"It's been really revealing to see communities like the community I come from -- communities that have been looked over, not invested in -- and there's too far many like that in the state of Illinois," Coleman said. "We are the fifth largest state economy-wise in the United States, and we can do much better than what we've done."

Pawar explained the four planks of his New Deal for Illinois platform that he would enact if elected governor of Illinois. The first plank is to increase revenue to better fund public schools by creating a progressive tax system and eliminating corporate tax loopholes. Two others included creating a statewide public works program that would provide job opportunities for both rural and urban Illinoisans, and reforming the state's criminal justice system by investing in job training and mental health services, as well as ending practices like solitary confinement.

For the fourth plank of enacting a universal health care system, Pawar would create a single-payer system that would collect all public funding for health care into a single trust. The plan would cover medical care for every Illinoisan, including preventative visits, hospital care, prescriptions, mental health services, nursing home care, rehabilitation, dental and optical care.

Pawar said taxes will not need to be raised to finance the single-payer system.

"What we can do is just take the premiums that people currently pay to an insurance company and pool that at the state, and then you actually reduce the premiums because more people pay into a pile," Pawar said. "I think another way to drive down costs, so that it's not a tax increase, is to create an interstate compact with other states to make the pool bigger. ... Our health care system right now, that doesn't serve everyone, costs the state billions of dollars in indirect taxes to people because your insurance premiums are based on the fact that lots of other people don't have insurance, so you're paying to cover everybody, and that's costing everyone more. So why don't we drive everyone's costs down by serving other people?"

Pawar also shared his family history with attendees and how it influenced his view on the current state of Illinois. Both of his parents were born under British colonial rule in India, and they experienced a "divide and rule" system in which the British government used differences between Indian communities to pit them against one another.

Pawar said he's seen the same system playing out in Illinois and in national politics, whether it's dividing voters based on race or where they come from, such as Chicago versus downstate Illinois. He hoped his New Deal for Illinois platform would unify all Illinoisans and appeal to working people in both blue and red counties, as the original New Deal did.

"I feel that it's necessary to bring people together and stop fighting one another over scraps based on what we look like, where we live and what we do for a living," Pawar said.

During the Q&A portion of the event, attendee Tianna Cervantez asked Pawar how he would bring state politicians from both political parties together. Pawar said he would not use politicians' personalities as an excuse for not getting things done, as Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Speaker Michael Madigan did during the state's budget crisis.

He recalled when he first ran for city alderman and, after being elected, needed to work with many people in the Chicago machine who campaigned against him.

"Politics is a lot like high school," Pawar said. "People sit at their tables and not everyone wants you sitting at their table. And we can either succumb to that or just recognize we're adults now, we lived through high school once, and stop buying into this petty stuff."

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