TWO RACES CENTER ON STATE’S CASH
Cross battling Frerichs for treasurer while Comptroller Topinka tries to fend off Simon
Illinois never seems to have enough money, but it does have two elected officials whose job is to look after it.
This November, voters will elect a treasurer, whose task is to invest the state’s cash, and a comptroller, whose job is to monitor how it is spent.
The treasurer’s post is the lone open statewide office this election because current Treasurer Dan Rutherford chose to run instead for governor— andwas defeated in the Republican primary.
Running to replace Rutherford are Tom Cross, a Republican state representative from Oswego, and Michael Frerichs, a Democratic state senator from downstate Champaign.
The comptroller’s race pits incumbent Republican Judy Baar Topinka against Democratic Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon, who announced last year that she would not run again for lieutenant governor amid speculation that she would run for attorney general. But that didn’t happen after Attorney General Lisa Madigan decided not to run for governor.
Treasurer candidate Cross, 56, is an attorney who has served 20 years in the state House, including a 12- year stint as minority leader.
His opponent, Frerichs, 41, is a former Champaign County auditor and Certified Public Finance officer who became a state senator in 2007.
Frerichs says he would increase state investments in local tech businesses to the maximum level allowable.
“There’s an additional $ 300 million that could be invested in Illinois venture capital and that would be a significant infusion for Illinois technology companies,” he told the Chicago Sun- Times.
Frerichs said he would also get an independent outside audit of the treasurer’s office and reform the Bright Start and Bright Directions college savings plans administered by the treasurer.
Cross says he would sue the General Assembly if they continued to pass unbalanced budgets.
“If it means we have to take the General Assembly or the governor to court, regardless of the political party, we’re going to do that. If we’re going to turn this state around, we have to start living within our means,” he said.
He also would issue a quarterly financial report card that would display easily understandable data about the state’s fiscal situation.
Topinka, 70, of west suburban Riverside, has spent time in the state House and Senate, served three terms as treasurer and made an unsuccessful bid for governor. Since she took office in 2010, she said the state’s bill payment backlog has gone from six months to a year down to three months.
“We’ve used a lot of technology to take what was basically a pencilandpaper type of office and have pulled it into the 21st century,” Topinka said.
Topinka also has put state financial data such as salaries, contracts, grants and municipal finance reports online. “Whatever we see, you see,” she said. “We all see it at the same time.”
Her opponent, Simon, 53, is a former Southern Illinois University law professor and the daughter of the late U. S. Sen. Paul Simon.
She is critical of how Topinka sometimes pays some institutions owed money by the state ahead of others.
“I see nothing wrong with scooting some people to the front of the line where there is that need,” Simon told the Sun- Times. “Where I see the error is to have this done apparently at whim. There are no published standards as to how these decisions are made.”
Topinka says she uses “common sense” in the payments process to help keep essential institutions such as hospitals and nursing homes open, but that many situations are unique.
“She’s looking for a kind of standardization that I don’t think we can find here because it’s all so different,” Topinka said of Simon.
Meanwhile, Simon is bashing Topinka on ethical grounds for asking Gov. Quinn to help her son find a job and for allowing two staffers to collect large paychecks from a foundation formerly headed by Topinka while also working full time in the comptroller’s office.
Topinka has said her staffers do a good job and that she has not been active with the foundation for four years.
As for her son, a retired military veteran, Topinka said she hoped that the governor might know of a job because of his close involvement with veterans. “I thought if he knew of anything out there . . . that he could help me with it,” Topinka said.