Stadelman & Gambino: A Closer Look at the Race for the 34th District
By: Matt Mershon
Updated: October 2, 2012
ROCKFORD - Monday night's
political forum at
The candidates in
the state senate race for the 34th district, democrat Steve
Stadelman and republican Frank Gambino say they both relied on tax-payer funded
human services in one way or another.
Gambino mentions his daughter just had a child out of wedlock and says
she will be turning to those human services to help her and her newborn
baby. Stadelman said he attended college
on government grants and loans, in addition to his family being on assistance growing
up on his family's dairy farm.
But then the
candidates were asked if they would commit to not cutting human services if
they took office. While both candidates
responded by saying they didn't want to cut services, both seemed to hint at
the fact that cuts are inevitable.
"There really
are no easy answers at all," said Stadelman.
"Some very tough decisions, but I think the thing we need to keep in
mind is that we've had these discussions that these aren't numbers on a
worksheet, these are human lives."
Gambino, in his
response, also took a jab at the democrats in
"What we need to do
is convince the party that controls all the votes that we need to cut our
budget," said Gambino.
"We need to work
toward pension reform and solve that pension issue, make those adjustments with
a system that is eating up our resources."
On the topic of
pension reform, the candidates were also asked whether or not they support debt
restructuring on the billions owed to human service providers, all because the
state can't pay its bills. Stadelman
says he supports that and Gambino says it's worth a look at.
"It would seem
to make sense to restructure that debt, take advantage of the lower interest
rates that are available," Stadelman said.
"You know debt
restructuring is a short term solution to the problem that we have. We need long term solutions," said Gambino.
