Politics
Chicago Mayoral Candidate Willie Wilson on Hiring Police, Cutting Taxes and Balancing the Budget
Chicago businessman and philanthropist Willie Wilson is throwing his hat in the ring for mayor of Chicago — his fourth bid for City Hall’s fifth floor.
Wilson also ran for U.S. president in 2016 and for the U.S. Senate in 2020. A former McDonald’s floor mopper, Wilson worked his way up to become a store manager and owner of several franchise locations. He would go on to launch Omar Medical Supplies, a medical supplies distribution company, named after his son Omar, who was shot and killed in 1995 at the age of 20.
Wilson joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss his candidacy, city finances and public safety.
On why he wants to be mayor of Chicago:
“Well, the city’s in tough shape — crime. You need a business person to come in and fix the city. You can’t have everything social. If you drive business out, raise taxes, jobs go away and businesses leave out. What do you have left? I’m coming in to make sure we get it right. My experience is with business, as well as community, as well as understanding people. Somebody has to do something to keep the city right and keep it going. I am Chicago.”
On why Chicago voters should choose him, despite his lack of government experience:
“You look at my record. You look at the politician’s record, especially the mayor. I’ve done more for the city than the politicians done. People hungry — food, gas, homeless. I’ve spent millions and millions of dollars a year to help people. I don’t raise taxes on them. I spend my own money. I don’t ask anybody for anything. You know the politicians right now, raising taxes and balancing the budget on the taxpayer dollar. I have to balance budgets on my own dollar. I don’t ask for anything. I’m running for mayor without a paycheck. You’ve got people running for two offices at the same time, cheating taxpayers out of their money. What’s that all about?”
On making life more affordable for Chicagoans:
“Well, look at it this way. When you raise taxes, you run people out. You got to lower taxes in order to keep people here. You go to lower taxes in order to keep businesses here. The people today, like myself, get gasoline and give Indiana a dollar — a dollar and fifty cents less. If you don’t lower taxes, those people go to Gary, Indiana, Wisconsin or someplace else and buy their groceries and buy their gasoline. They move out of the city. There are over 70,000 young men in Chicago Public Schools that have left because you throw people out of the city. So we have to lower the taxes for the consumer. Lower real estate taxes. Lower the taxes for businesses so they can stay here and create jobs and you gotta attract more businesses to come here.”
On covering the loss in revenue from cutting taxes:
“You gotta attract the businesses, but you gotta develop them within the city. Chicago got over 10,000 vacant lots. Why don’t you take and redevelop those particular lot vacancies? The money is going out of the city to people living in Indiana, people living in Wisconsin, people living in California for a particular job or contract. Use your own workforce. Develop them here. Chicago is the best city in the world to live and got the best workforce.”
On whether he would hire more police officers:
“I would not only hire an extra 1,000. If you need 2,000, then you hire 2,000.”
“I’ll tell you what. From my understanding, it’s short of 2,000 people now — police officers. If you need 3,000, you do what it takes to protect your citizens. We’ll find the money through lowering taxes, bringing in new businesses. … You’ve gotta put your citizens first. You protect the citizens first. You stop crime. You send police over to a particular area to get that crime down. My opponents running, they don’t have a plan or the slightest idea how to do it except for raising taxes on the consumers and citizens. That’s not right.”
On fighting crime and increasing public safety:
“My approach has been this here. You have to make sure that the people are held accountable. You’ve got grab and snatch. You’ve got people who are gonna take over the downtown city of Chicago. Everyone has to be held accountable. If you commit a crime, you’re held accountable.”
