Illinois State District 65 Representative Daniel Ugaste (R) paid a visit to Sun City on Monday, November 1, for a Town Hall meeting in the Fountain View lodge. Approximately 35 Sun City residents attended.
District 65 Rep Daniel Ugaste told a room of Sun City residents that he may be “mapped out” of Huntley in the next election due to shifting district borders as a result of Illinois population loss. (Photo by David Goode/My Sun Day News)
Representative Ugaste was originally elected in 2018 and reelected in 2020. He commented that, “I may be mapped out of Huntley in the next election.” He explained that, “the new District 65 northern boundary might be Bowes Road in Elgin.”
He reported that Illinois was one of three states to lose population since the 2010 census count.
“We lost 18,000 residents which means that fewer people have to burden the same tax load as if the population wasn’t reduced,” explained Ugaste.
The “party in power,” as Ugaste described the current legislative majority, “has drawn two district maps for 2022.” Both maps have met with legal challenges. The courts tossed the first map out as being unconstitutional.
“The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDF) and the East St. Louis office of the NAACP have filed suit claiming that the latest maps are not representative” of the population, he said.
According to Ugaste, “Latinos are now the second largest group in Illinois, followed by African-Americans.”
He also reported that “the Illinois Supreme Court map was redrawn for the first time since 1960.”
The final version of the Illinois congressional district map and the Illinois house and senate maps must be final by December 31, 2021.
Ugaste said that “2022 will be a busy election year. The primaries will be in June and the Federal elections less than five months later.”
State finances were a major topic of the meeting. Ugaste reported that State revenues were “better than expected due to the Covid-19 federal funds that came into the state.”
He explained that the State had received “$8.1 billion dollars from the federal government in Covid-19 relief funds” and that “approximately $2.3 Billion dollars was still available for the State to use” however the State government decided.
The “party in power” decided to award “a total of $2.1 billion dollars to Democratic districts to cover Covid-19 related expenses.” At the same time “Republican districts received zero funds” according to Ugaste.
It was Ugaste’s opinion that the recently passed Clean Energy Jobs Act would “result in the largest electric bill ever in the State.”
He said that “the AARP has predicted a $15 per month increase in electric bills for Illinois residents.”
When asked about the gas taxes not collected by electric vehicle owners, Ugaste responded that “the license plate fee for electric cars will be $250 to substitute for the payment of a gas tax.”
When discussing State finances, Ugaste mentioned that “Illinois is now the third largest gaming (i.e., Gambling) state behind Nevada and New Jersey.
The town hall meeting lasted about 90 minutes.
