Brandi McGuire, Republican candidate for House District 72, declared her position on pay for legislators in a recent posting to her Facebook page, reiterating her objection to pensions for lawmakers.
If elected, she said she would refuse to take a pension for the position.
“I am going to reject any pension because I don’t believe that legislators should be receiving pensions,” McGuire said. “I signed a contract in January stating that I will refuse the legislative pension. This is not a career that warrants a pension… . It is a public service, and I think we need to go back to what it was intended to be.”
McGuire objects to pensions, crusades for causes
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McGuire, hoping to oust incumbent Rep. Patrick Verschoore (D-Milan) in November, also said that she would reject any legislator pay increase.
“Every time the budget comes in, the first thing they want to (do) is to give themselves a raise, so if … we are given any kind of pay raise, my raise will go to a charity that is inside the 72nd District,” she said.
Likewise, McGuire would refuse to vote on any bill that she did not fully understand; oppose additional sales taxes or income taxes at any level; and advocate for a cause close to her heart — educational opportunities for disabled individuals.
McGuire went to court herself to win the right for her daughter Kellsey, who has epilepsy, to be allowed to bring her service dog Jasper with her to class in the Sherrod School District.
“I took on the board of education and fought for about 18 months against them, which is the government I finance, and I won on two counts,” McGuire said.
Her family used the funds to set up a trust for Kellsey and pay legal fees. In August 2015, Sherrod school officials agreed to pay more than $95,500 to the McGuire family to settle the lawsuit.
McGuire contends that the school district’s mistake only served to fuel her candidacy. She believes that Illinois ranks last in serving those with special needs, and “that is definitely one thing … driving me to run for state representative.”
A lifelong Rock Island County resident, McGuire has been married 21 years, has four children and directs her family’s driving school business in East Moline. She founded Ribbons for Kellsey as a nonprofit in the Quad Cities to support those with epilepsy.
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