2026 Election Questionnaire: Stephen Balich, Will County Board, District 4

Name: Stephen Balich

What office are you seeking: County Board District 4

What is your political party?

What is your current age? 75

Occupation and employer: Retired

What offices, if any, have you previously held? County Board Member

Homer Township: Trustee, Clerk, Supervisor

Republican Homer Township Chair

Lead Congressional District Delegate to the Republican Presidential Election for Trump in 2020 and 2024

Lead Congressional District Delegate for Ted Cruz 2016

Republican Committeeman

Will County Freedom Caucus Chair

Co-Founder of the Will County Tea Party Alliance

Helped numerous Candidates run for office

City: Homer Glen/ Orland Park Post Office

Campaign website: Youtube.com/sbalich1 Facebook.com/sbalich1

Education: Graduated Marist H.S.

Moraine Valley AA Degree Early Childhood and AA Degree Business

Saint Xavier University BA liberal Arts, Minor Psychology and Education

Governors State University 3 classes short for Masters in Health Science

Real Estate Broker Classes

Series 6, 65, 63 Classes to sell Tax Sheltered Annuities

Community involvement: President of the Will County Italian American Organization

Go to School Board meetings as needed to Support Board members over Policy and Tax Increases

Member of the Knights of Columbus

Former member of the Homer Township Chamber before it was dissolved

Former coach for children sports

Taught CCD at various churches for 10 years

Part of a group organizing political rally’s for various issues and candidates

Marital status/Immediate family: Divorced over 26 years

3 Children 42, 40, 38

What are your top three priorities for this district?

Stopping the unnecessary Spending that causes Property Tax increases

Stopping increased property taxes by cutting spending and finding Revenue sources that do not impact Residents

Trying my best to continue to help people all over the County with various issues and problems.

What types of job growth are needed in Will County to help residents keep up with rising costs, especially housing?

As Property Taxes increase the harder it is to sell your home because less people qualify for the necessary loan to purchase at the price desired. Will County can be friendlier to new Small Homes and Mother in law apartments. As supervisor I tried to develop a Senior 55 or older 1200 to 1500 sq. Ft. Project on Township owned land. The 3 bedroom ranch homes would have 2 bathrooms and a garage on a small lot starting at $225,000 with an HOA fee of $125 for outside maintenance. No children would be allowed eliminating school increased population. No renting allowed. This would all be by covenant in the deed. I would have helped every taxing body with a windfall of money. This failed because so many people screaming scared of the developer. Rumors and Lies were told by an opposing political side.

Point being the County could do a similar project. The County could also build a building with x amount of offices to rent out to Home School Pods at a reasonable low price where the County is making money and the need space is affordable. As a board member I will always look for ways to increase revenue that does not affect our citizens.

What should be infrastructure priorities and projects over the next four years?

The County is working on fixing run-down bridges all the time. This is necessary. Roads need improvements but if an entire Township or Village is against it, the County needs to back off.

Solar projects is soon to be a thing of the past as better methods of making energy that don’t take huge amounts of good farm land are being used in other States. Solar only works well in the summer. Battery storage catches fire and is highly toxic. Wind mills are the worst, in Texas they froze and people had no electric. The County needs to charge the highest amount for fees that are allowed by the Laws passed by the State taking away the County’s right to refuse solar projects.

Before COVID I was on the Land Use committee. I was able to remove multiple building codes of the books because citizens ignored them. Being allowed to replace a portion of your roof without a permit, Replacing a door in the same opening with no permit, allowing a children’s pool up to and including 2 Ft. in debt to be allowed without fence, all code violations require a complaint not Land use looking for violations, are just some examples. COVID came and re-doing codes went away. We still have the plumbing codes to fix. Permits are needed to change a shut off Valve, hot water tank, the wax ring on a toilet, and on and on.

What is your position on data centers? Should the county be open to their development?

I don’t have an opinion yet. There is plenty to learn before making a decision. I do know a huge amount of energy is needed. Where will it come from and will it affect our residents. Is there any contamination of any sort associated with these centers.

Do you favor solar farm development? Should the county encourage more sustainable energy development?

The County should be concerned about keeping good farm land. The County has no choice but to approve. As of now and we have numerous cases with a no vote, to waiting to go to trial. Remove the Subsidy’s and the Solar Farms will go away. I vote no to Solar projects.