Tony Michelassi for DuPage County Board

DuPage County has made a name for itself as one of the best places to live and work in the nation. As Cook County’s woes continue to mount, we see DuPage growing in population and in the number of businesses headquartered here. These new residents and businesses increase the demand on our infrastructure and County services. So far, the Board’s answer to this growth is to increase taxes, or advocate home rule for the County.

I oppose any and all attempts to bring home rule to DuPage County. Home rule will give the Board and the Chairman broader powers to levy taxes, increase spending, and increase regulation, with less call for transparency or residential involvement. This is not the answer for us. We can’t solve the County’s woes by throwing money at them as they come. Creating a more powerful and unwieldy County bureaucracy will only lead us into more taxes, which will stunt our County’s growth.

As your representative, I will provide my fellow Board Members with a new perspective. Let’s roll with the punches. We must work to partner with local governments and businesses to invest in our infrastructure - this means finding ways for business and residents to co-exist without getting in each other’s way.

We need to mitigate the EJ&E Railroad purchase. By opposing it this early on, both of my opponents and many local officials are making an effort that most likely will not succeed. Well over 95% of railroad sales approved by the Federal Surface Transportation Board were completed despite local opposition. Any effort to oppose the sale makes government into part of the problem, and not the solution. We should instead be working to build a local funding coalition for grade separations at critical rail crossings within DuPage. In District 5, this means there must be a grade separation (a bridge or underpass) built at the Ogden Avenue crossing. I am willing to work with officials from Canadian National, the City of Naperville, the City of Aurora, the County, the State, and the Federal Government to split the cost of such a project fairly, and to speed up its completion. Funds must also be allocated to the building of sound barriers and safety precautions - CN has already agreed to help pay for these as well. The EJ&E purchase will ultimately benefit our entire region through reduced truck traffic and increased business opportunities along the line, in addition to opening the way for the STAR commuter line. It will make use of existing infrastructure that previously had been sparingly used.

Land is at a premium in DuPage. When I was little, I can remember the areas all around my subdivision being nothing but farmland. Now, that land has been built into new housing developments and warehouses. More and more of our attractive countryside is being turned into new development. I propose the County partner with the Forest Preserve District and local governments to encourage construction on existing residential and commercial zones. We should build UP instead of OUT. Allowing more land to be bought up and incorporated creates the need for new roads, water mains, electrical mains, telecom investment, and so on - all these are costs that dramatically impact our governments at all levels, as well as businesses. This also generates more road traffic as individual cars and commercial trucks clog our highways, many of which cannot be expanded without damaging existing zones. There should be a drive to create high-density downtown commercial and residential centers - clean, beautiful office and apartment/condo highrises in the centers of our growing cities and villages. Coupled with a comparatively cheap investment in public transportation, ten or twenty years down the road we could see a DuPage made of bustling cities with dramatic skylines, short commute times, cleaner air, less traffic, and a higher quality of living.