Candidates vying for the 103rd district seat for state representative have contrasting views on extending the electrical rate freeze, educational funding and campaign contributions.

The divide was apparent Friday night when Democratic candidate Naomi Jakobsson, Republican candidate Rex Bradfield, and Green party candidate Tom Abram met at the Champaign County Farm Bureau Auditorium for the last debate in a series of forums.

Jakobsson addressed the question of extending the electrical rate freeze, which has kept electricity prices constant for the past decade, by saying she helped push legislation which will extend the freeze until 2010 to protect consumers in Illinois.

“A 45 percent increase in their electrical bills is just going to increase their hardships,” Jakobsson said. “So many people in this area will not be able to cope.”

Bradfield said that under the rate freeze, the free market cannot work and that an extension could harm the electrical utility companies in Illinois.

“I don’t support the 45 percent increase all at once,” said Bradfield, who added it should be phased in over the next several years.

Abram also questioned the logic behind extending the rate freeze.

“I don’t think another rate freeze is going to cut it,” said Abram, pointing out that competition among electricity providers has not materialized under the current freeze.

Candidates were also at odds over educational funding with Abram supporting House Bill HB0750, which would shift education funding from property taxes to state income taxes.

The legislation would increase the rate of income tax for individuals, trusts and estates from three percent to five percent of the taxpayer’s net income and the rate of income tax for corporations from 4.8 percent to eight percent.

“More than 50 percent of people in Illinois favor this,” Abram said, as he pointed out that families with collective incomes of $47,000 or less would not be affected by the tax hike due to an exemption in the legislation.

“People do not want their taxes raised,” said Jakobsson, who pointed out that the people she has talked to in the community are worried about any potential tax hike.

Bradfield said he would support a combination of an income tax and sales tax on consumer goods to shift away from the reliance on property taxes.

Bradfield attacked Jackobsson for receiving the bulk of her campaign contributions from outside the district, which he said was more than 93 percent.

Jakobsson countered by saying that the figure included organizations outside of the district that are composed of people from within the district.

Bradfield said that only two of his campaign contributions came from outside of the district.

Abram, however, was more concerned with who exactly the contributions were coming from as opposed to whether or not they come from within or outside the district.

“What I would like to see abolished is corporate contributions,” Abram said.

Abram accepts no corporate contributions and would like to see a policy introduced that would prevent a corporation that donates to a campaign from receiving any form of government contract.