12th District: County Board Candidates Clash Over Property Taxes, Billionaire Influence

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Sharp contrasts and blunt criticism were on display in a candidate forum between in a race for Lake County Board. One candidate accused his opponent of lying about a vote for a property tax hike, while the other accused him of opposing women's reproductive rights.

Paras Parekh, a Highland Park Democrat, is a marketing executive for a pharmaceutical company. He is running for a second term on the county and forest preserve boards representing the 12th District, which includes the towns of Bannockburn, Deerfield, and parts of Highland Park and Lake Forest.

Andy Dalkin, a Lake Forest Republican, is challenging him. He is a former Cook County prosecutor who now works as a lawyer for an association that represents Waukegan police, senior officers in Chicago and other law enforcement agencies.

Both candidates were asked identical questions at a remote forum last month hosted by local chapters of the League of Women Voters and the Mano a Mano Family Resource Center. The moderator's first query was to identify the most important issue facing the board.

Parekh first said the biggest issue was affordable housing, though he said climate change was also "built into the fabric of everything I do as your county board representative." He then began to attack Dalkin, addressing him directly in violation of the League of Women Voters rules of the forum agreed by both candidates.

"Too many of my constituents are just fed up with the whole MAGA movement, having Dick Uihlein and people like Andy Dalkin," Parekh said, referencing the Lake Forest billionaire CEO and co-founder of U-Line.

"Andy Dalkin's biggest supporter is Dick Uihlein. Those are not the values we want. We do not want election denialism. We want to protect freedom. We want to protect women's rights," Parekh said. "That is where our constituents believe, and I’d like for Andy Dalkin to tell us tonight why Dick Uihlein is your biggest super-funder of your campaign? Why you support Trump, why you support the MAGA movement and why don’t you believe in a woman's reproductive rights?"

Dalkin said the most important issue in the county was the prohibitively high cost of living and taxes that have increased under Parekh, who he said had been "non-existent in the community."

"[Dick Uihlein] is not my biggest supporter. I might point out that I have funded most of this campaign myself. I am not beholden to any one person. I will do what I think is right and what is best for Lake County and the 12th District," Dalkin said. "I do support a woman's right to choose, and I’m not sure where you received that information that I didn’t, so I would completely deny that that is, in fact, the case."

According to state campaign finance records, Uihlein gave Dalkin's campaign finance committee $6,900 on Aug. 2, making him the largest donor to the campaign other than Dalkin himself, who has chipped in more than $11,000 to the committee.

Parekh is also the largest contributor to his own campaign committee, having given himself nearly $13,000, though he has only reported receiving one four-figure donation so far this cycle.

The incumbent Democrat listed his accomplishments on the board, including constructing environmentally friendly buildings, restricting the use of plastics in county operations, and completing road projects "all while keeping the tax levy flat."

But his Republican challenger said Parekh previously promised not to raise taxes but did so anyway.

"I don't know where Mr. Dalkin has received his information on tax hikes," Parekh said. "If you own a $280,000 home today, which is the median price today, you pay less tax today than you would have if you own that exact same home before I joined."

Dalkin pushed back by citing Parekh's Nov. 14, 2023, vote in favor of budge and property tax levy for the 2024 fiscal year.

"The county board voted to increase the tax levy from 2.4 percent to 5 percent, and Mr. Parekh did in fact vote for that, so that's where I'm getting my information from," Dalkin said.

Minutes from the meeting show the levy passed by a vote of 13-3, with three Democratic board members absent and all three Republicans on the board voting against it.

"After much discussion during the public budget hearings in October, Lake County opted to increase its property tax levy by 5 percent, the maximum amount allowed," officials said, acknowledging the property tax levy increase in a news release, "to ensure that adequate funding was available for employee compensation adjustments and other new program requests."

Dalkin said taxpayers can easily see that the board had raised their taxes just by looking at the county portion of the tax bill.

"People have had their wallets basically robbed of money," Dalkin said. "And Mr. Parekh talks about the average home value of $280,000, well I would point out that that's the average home value, in the 12th District the average value is somewhere close to $900,000 or higher so it obviously has a greater effect on people in this district."

Parekh said the Lake County government was growing efficiently and has a smaller tax burden than when he joined the board in 2020.

"I want people to be mindful: it is 7 percent of your tax bill. It is not what everyone things, that it's this outrageous number, that is not what the Lake County government is," Parekh said.

The candidates sharply differed in their perspective about policies to meet the need for affordable housing.

"Honestly, I would say that as far as affordable housing goes, I don’t believe the county board should be involved in affordable housing," Dalkin said.

"The way to make sure there is affordable housing is to lower the tax rate so people can afford to buy homes, to rent homes, make sure that people are employed, that to me would be the best way of ensuring that there is affordable housing for individual," he added, while acknowledging the board should have "some role" in providing housing opportunities to those unable to work.

Parekh said the county needs to more to make sure that people who work for local governments are unable to live near their jobs.

"It's easy for any one individual municipality to kind of wave their hands and say, 'That's our zoning, and that's our issue.' No, the reality is that we live in a community, and the county needs to — and I will be spearheading this over the next year — is bringing municipalities together to say, 'How do we tackle this as a countywide issue?'" Parekh said.

"We can't have zoning that is fantastic in Highland Park, Deerfield, and Lake Forest but not so great in Libertyville and other communities," he said. "We need to come together. I'm very intrigued by what Montana and California have done, I don't know if it's right for Illinois, but they have changed how they look at housing, and it's something that we need to do."

Despite their significant policy differences on display at the Sept. 26 forum, Dalkin and Parekh found common ground on some key issues, including support for expanding the Lake County Forest Preserves and connecting trails from Wisconsin to Cook County.

Both candidates also acknowledged the importance of prioritizing mental health services in Lake County, particularly for vulnerable populations like veterans and children.

And both Dalkin and Parekh were united in their opposition to the expansion of the Waukegan Airport into protected forest preserve land, citing concerns over environmental preservation and the lack of sufficient justification for the project.

Early voting started Monday across Lake County.

Read more: Early Voting Begins Countywide In Lake County As Online Registration Closes