Pillar Aryana Franco “They didn’t ask them what was going on at home. They just cared about their behavior. I know some students who couldn’t afford to do laundry or others who were in a toxic household. When you’re going through that, you can’t focus on school.”
Pillar Steven Blake “Rain or shine, hot or cold, I’m out here. My customers tell me they’re so glad I’m back. My presence brings a sense of normalcy back.”
Pillar Katie Vandenberg “Peoria created an annual pension fee. Homeowners might pay $30-40 annually while commercial owners or landlords might pay $150-250.”
Pillar Vicki Granacki “I have good relationships with my tenants, so I do everything I can to help them. My husband and I hoped to pass the building on to our son, yet these taxes put business and property owners in a tough spot.”
Pillar Juan Giron “A $60,000 increase isn’t gradual. I thought, ‘This has to be a mistake. Someone must have spilled their coffee, added a zero, or something.’”
Pillar Haywood Talcove “So far, Illinois has lost $1 billion to fraud, at least. Regardless of how you feel, politically, Democrat or Republican, the money that you’re losing could meet all the social program needs that you would ever want for your population.”
Pillar Jeremiah Griffin “I want to tell my story so that kids that deal with learning disabilities or people telling them, ‘They can’t be something,’ feel like they can be something, and they don’t listen to the negativity.”
Pillar Chris Stephens “There’s a lot of investors nationally that I know that will not invest in Illinois. There [are] large investors pulling out of this state because they don’t want to pay for other people’s bad mistakes.”
