WATCH: Amid GOP governor candidates, Dabrowski says he knows how to fix Illinois

By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – A Republican candidate for Illinois governor says he has the knowledge of what ails the state and the solutions to reverse course.

Ted Dabrowski said his parents immigrated to Illinois from failing countries; his mother is from Ecuador and his father escaped communist Poland. As a former analyst for Illinois Policy Institute and former president of government watchdog Wirepoints, he said he’s different from other Republicans looking for the party’s nomination.

“I’ve written, researched and worked on changes to taxation, worked on changes to pension, to budgeting, I’ve exposed lots of things,” Dabrowski told The Center Square of his policy work focused on Illinois.

As to how he handles the media that could be hostile to a conservative candidate, Dabrowski was confident he knew how to frame the issues.

“Why aren’t we in the group that is growing our economy, growing population, growing wages? Because right now we’re not and the hostile press will have to take me on but the facts are on my side, the truth is on my side and the moral truth is on my side as well,” he said.

Illinois property taxes, which are the highest among all states, need to be addressed, as do pensions and education, he said. But, if he were to be elected, Dabrowski said he’d likely go up against a Democratic state legislature.

“You’ve got to connect the dots between the Democrats who are in total control, supermajorities in the legislature, the problems that we have in Illinois are tied to them,” he said.

For the state’s high property taxes, he says one thing to address is the main driver and that’s public sector pensions.

“The first step and the obvious step, move to 401(k)s for all new employees starting tomorrow,” Dabrowski said. “It’s constitutional, it’s legal, 401(k)s is what everyone else gets in the private sector.”

Illinois’ unfunded public sector pension liability is about $140 billion, tens of billions more if you include local public sector pensions.

The primary election is March 17. The final ballot has not been finalized.

Other candidates that have filed for ballot access are former Republican governor candidate Darren Bailey, DuPage County Sheriff Jim Mendrick and businessman Joe Severino.