Candidate profile: Tom McRae

Name: Tom McRae

Office seeking: Madison County Board Member District 14

Party: Republican

Age: 58

City of residence: Bethalto

Campaign website: n/a

Why are you running and why should people vote for you? I am running to continue my efforts to make Madison County more responsible to the public and to bring common sense and transparency to local government

How will you keep property taxes low? I have never voted for a property tax increase and as a member of the Finance Committee I voted to reduce the county tax levy by nearly $2 million this fiscal year. We accomplished while maintaining vital services.

We are in process of a $14 million renovation to the county jail. This project will be completely funded by revenues from the general fund without issuing bonds that would require repayment from property taxpayers.

What is something the board should be doing, but isn’t doing right now? We need to continue to cut red tape and explore more competitive bidding on all county projects to assure taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely.

Since December 2016, Madison County Board meetings have jumped from lasting an average of 36 minutes to an average of one hour and 11 minutes. Is this an efficient use of time? Why or why not? I believe more debate and discussion is healthy and I am an active participant. I learn from my colleagues on the board, both democrats and republicans, and appreciate their insight.

This story was originally published October 4, 2018 at 2:56 PM.