“Lock ’em in a room,” Judy Baar Topinka said in response to finding legislative solutions to reform education and improve the business climate in Illinois by bringing politicians and industry professionals together.

State Treasurer and Republican gubernatorial candidate Topinka said she was focused on defeating Gov. Rod Blagojevich during her appearance with the Champaign County Republicans Thursday afternoon, answering questions on education, businesses, gun control and welfare reform.

“We’re going to clean house,” Topinka said. “I’m going to get the big Hoover out.”

Topinka said the Illinois government should work alongside businesses in the state to create legislation that would not drive jobs out of the state. On education, she said Illinois had to get away from using the property tax system to fund education and to improve the foundation for funds on reliable sources of income, which would not include the governor’s proposal for keno gambling.

Part of keeping Illinois competitive in the global economy would require funding for higher education, Topinka said, and the solution to rising tuition costs would not be offering a tax credit.

“I think that if you stop cutting higher education, you don’t have to come up with these harebrained schemes of tax credits,” Topinka said about the governor’s proposal to offer a $1,000 tax credit to freshmen and sophomores in college with a ‘B’ average. “Who’s going to administer the program? Who’s going to collect the graded papers?”

Topinka spoke with University of Illinois President B. Joseph White about how the state could support the University and do better business.

“We had a frank and candid discussion about the importance of higher education and the University of Illinois for future prosperity of the state,” White said in a released statement. “We also discussed the importance of state support in order to keep tuition affordable.”

Topinka said with Medicaid costs totaling 27 percent of the state budget and growing, health care in Illinois needed to be monitored and made more efficient to save money, and the governor’s proposal to improve veterans’ health care needed specifics and details.

“The (Veterans’ Association) has not been particularly good toward Illinois,” Topinka said. “We’ve had a lot of noise coming out of our congressional delegation. They deserve a lot of credit for raising cane that our veterans were not getting as many benefits as other states.”

Topinka said she supported civil unions, but said she would veto any bill that came to her on gay marriage.

“I think that contractual relationships ought to be respected and honored,” Topinka said. “As long as someone is a citizen of the state of Illinois . everybody is equal before the law. No more. No less.”

When asked about the issue of concealed carry and gun control, Topinka said she felt uncomfortable with concealed carry, but that no more gun legislation was necessary.

“We have enough gun legislation already,” she said. “Leave it alone.”

A call made to Gov. Blagojevich’s spokesperson for comment was not returned as of press time.