THE ISSUES

A small handful of Illinoisans have accumulated enormous wealth, while the rest of us struggle to get by. We need an economy that supports the working class, creates good family-sustaining jobs, and holds the ultra-rich accountable to paying their fair share in taxes. That’s why Will has supported the $15 minimum wage; protections against wage theft and discrimination at work; paid leave for every worker; stronger benefits for workers in the gig economy; and a fair tax system that would put money in working people’s pocketes while asking the 1% to finally pay what they owe.

Too many of our neighbors face homelessness, housing insecurity, or very high cost burdens. No one should be paying half their income in rent. And yet, in gentrifying communities, property taxes are skyrocketing as developers replace affordable housing with luxury homes and condos. High taxes drive rents up and push out long-time homeowners, feeding the cycle. To fix this broken system, Will supports transformational investments in affordable rental housing; dedicated resources for homelessness prevention; relief and protections for struggling renters; property tax relief for homeowners and small landlords in gentrifying areas; and lifting the ban on rent control to let municipalities protect their renters.

Now more than ever, quality healthcare must be a right, not a privilege. We need national, single-payer healthcare that provides great coverage to everyone. Until we get there, Will is fighting to make coverage in Illinois as universal, affordable, and accessible as possible. That means expanding Medicaid coverage to include more uninsured people, including undocumented people; forcing Big Pharma to lower prescription drug prices; eliminating any barriers to reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care; and supporting safety net hospitals to make sure poor communities are served.

Our criminal legal system is profoundly unjust. Too many people are serving decades-long sentences that don’t serve the interest of justice. And people who are caught up in the system — overwhelmingly Black and Latine — are then marked for life with the collateral consequences of having a record. Will knows we need to transform our system to create true justice for all. He stands for ending mandatory minimums to reduce unconscionably long sentences; reinstating parole in Illinois; abolishing cash bail to end the incarceration of people not yet proven guilty but too poor to pay; reducing the charges for low-level drug possession; and ending discrimination against people with criminal records in housing and employment.

When properly funded and supported, public education — from birth to college — can be the great equalizer in America. Unfortunately, our systems today are distorted so that children in wealthy suburbs get much better public education than those in poor communities. Will believes in equitable school funding to support schools in disinvested areas; universal child care and preschool so that every child gets a great start; reducing the over-reliance on standardized testing in our public schools; and universal free tuition at all our public universities and community colleges for every Illinoisan, irrespective of income or immigration status.

Our current mechanisms of public safety aren’t working. Too many people feel unsafe in our neighborhoods. Violent crime is on the rise, and the police aren’t making us safer. We need to rethink public safety in a way that makes our communities safe for everyone. That means positive interventions for at-risk youth; creating unarmed, civilian first responders to answer calls for behavioral health crisis; restructuring police departments to focus on solving violent crimes; and transparency and accountability for law enforcement officers when they violate people’s rights

The concentration of wealth, power, and political and social influence in a small handful of multinational corporations is a dangerous feature of our society. They wield that power to avoid regulation, take advantage of consumers to maximize profit, and create a race to the bottom for workers rights and corporate accountability. Will has spent his career working to close corporate tax loopholes; prevent price gouging by monopolistic drug companies; establish privacy protections to fight against the invasive behavior of Big Tech; and cap interest rates that predatory financial institutions can charge to low-income borrowers.

Marginalized communities continue to see vast and persistent gaps in income, health outcomes, housing, and legal system involvement. We need to acknowledge structural racism and systemic oppression of women and femmes, LGBTQ+ people, and others. And once we’ve acknowledged it, we need to fight it. That means creating strong legal frameworks to fight discrimination; ending the new Jim Crow of mass incarceration; ensuring equitable representation at every level of public and private leadership; and creating inclusive public policy that supports and uplifts historically marginalized people.

After decades of mismanagement and the crisis years of Gov. Rauner’s tenure, Illinois’s budget was on the brink of collapse. We’ve recovered from that disaster, but funding for vital public services is still limited, and the tax burden still falls overwhelmingly on lower-income Illinoisans. Will’s plans to improve our fiscal situation include creating a more progressive income tax, easing the burden on working people and getting the wealthy to pay their fair share; limiting property tax burdens on local communities by increasing state funding to schools; fully funding the state’s pension obligations; and creating a public bank to manage the finances of the state and avoid paying hundreds of millions in fees to massive private financial institutions.

Climate change is the defining political, moral, and social crisis of our time. Responding to it will take a full-scale effort on the part of public and private entities at every level, and Illinois must lead the way. That’s why Will supports an immediate transition to zero-carbon power generation; investments in electrifying our transportation sector, including electric vehicle incentives and charging station infrastructure; a commitment to mass transit in every community; and smart land use strategies to make sure our agricultural and natural lands are contributing to climate change mitigation.