McCarter Addresses Business Owners in Open Meeting

“It's important to learn how to serve people from the start... And you can't serve people unless you care for them.”

This was the theme State Senator Kyle McCarter presented to the Greater Shelbyville Chamber of Commerce last Thursday evening.

McCarter represents the 51st Legislative District which includes part of Shelby County. He is currently serving on six committees and two subcommittees in the Illinois General Assembly. He also has experience as a small business owner and has served on the O’Fallon Chamber of Commerce and on the city’s economic development committee.

“There are very few people in Springfield that understand the risk of owning a small business and there are very few people in Springfield who appreciate that risk,” McCarter said.

McCarter shared his personal experiences and what he has learned as a small business owner.

“It comes down to investing in the community. It’s about serving the people,” he said. “You go into business to help others. It’s the law of sowing and reaping. If you invest in people, there will be an award that comes back to you.”

McCarter encouraged business owners to work together - bringing skills and needs together.

“You’ve got to understand the math of businesses working together, helping each other. In a small community that can be huge,” he said.

McCarter said that one of his goals for the 51st District is to create more jobs.

“Whatever I can do to invest in the people I’m serving, I’m going to do,” he promised.

In talking about the state, McCarter said he believes the only way it can go is up.

“We failed. We ask ‘Well, whose fault is it?’ I’m not sure it really matters. We need to come together and make this thing work,” he said.

“What we’ve got is a situation in this state where we have run off businesses. We have lost one-third of the manufacturing jobs in three years. We didn’t lose to India. We’re losing to Indiana,” McCarter said. “If we don’t reduce the cost of doing business in the state, we’re not going to attract the jobs that we need to turn this thing around.”

He said that he believes that if the state can control its spending, things can turn around.

“There is no reason to give the state who can’t control spending more money,” McCarter said. “We don’t have a tax rate problem, we have a tax revenue problem. Instead of increasing the tax burden, the State needs to ask ‘What can we do to help’.”

“We’ve got a huge ship to turn around and it’s not going to turn around overnight. But we’ve got to start making changes now. If we keep doing things we’ve been doing, we can only expect the same results,” McCarter said. “It’s only going to happen if the leadership steps up and invests in business.”

He added that another problem created by the state is excessive regulations on businesses.

“Businesses are never going to be able to afford it,” he said.

“I think we’re going to have to make some tough decisions now... we’ve got to invest in people. Ask ‘What can I do to help?’ Business has so much to add,” McCarter said.

McCarter said he believes investing in schools is also critical to the state’s economy.

“If the leaders of our community can display to young people what they can be, they’ll learn a lot more than what they can learn in college. It will give them a vision,” McCarter said.

McCarter also addressed questions from those attending the meeting.

With regard to possible redistricting, McCarter responded, “District 51 is not the way to do it.”

The district includes the partial counties of Macon, Moultrie, Shelby, Effingham, Fayette, Bond, Madison, Clinton, and St. Clair.

“It’s got to be addressed. You would think it would be simple. Once you get the political clout out of your head, you have to ask ‘Are you going to do this right and make sure people are represented in a practical way... with circles and rectangles?’ There’s sure a lot of talk (about redistricting),” McCarter said.

In addressing the question “Is the tide turning?”, McCarter responded,

“What’s going to motivate our government is how bad people are hurting. Hopefully there are enough people tired of what’s happening that they are going to make change in leadership. People are desperate and hurting. Politicians are playing the middle, playing it safe, in hopes of being re-elected. And it has worked, but I don’t think it’s going to work any longer. People are going to have to take a stand for what is right and things that work, and it’s going to be risky. We’ve got to take that risk to turn things around.”

McCarter said that he had proposed a 5% cut across the board as a solution to the budget crisis. Some of those cuts can result in as much as $7 million against the deficit

“If you keep your budget flat for two years, you’ll see a surplus and you have a capital fund that you can build roads and bridges with. That’s real money. Makes financial sense to me,” McCarter said.

Addressing the question about Eagle Creek, McCarter said broadening the Requests for Proposals is “going to invite greater opportunities.”

“Who wants to run a golf course? And who’s going to clean all the mold up? The best thing would be to knock it down and start over,” McCarter said.

“By broadening the RFPs we invite greater opportunities. I’d like to see something good to happen to Eagle Creek, We can’t afford another failure there - we need a big win there.”

Addressing the overwhelming representation of Chicago versus the rest of the state, McCarter said that he would like to see those senators and representatives spend more time in Central and Southern Illinois.

“We are a different culture from Chicago. We’ve got to influence the other senators from Chicago to protect my part of the state,” McCarter said.

In closing McCarter noted that although the state is working to become more transparent, “it’s not as much as we should be yet.”

The Greater Shelbyville Chamber of Commerce president Tad Mayhall said he thought McCarter message was pertinent for the whole community.

“I was very pleased at Senator McCarter’s message to the chamber and to the community,” said Mayhall. “His comments on investing in people and helping one another really stuck home and should be a focus for all of us.”

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