State Rep. David Wirsing, 70th District, announced Tuesday he would seek re-election next year. First he must win the Republican primary March 15.

Wirsing, a freshman Republican representative from Sycamore, was elected last November over Democratic candidate Kay Phillips. Wirsing said he had a successful first term.

He said although he did not go down to Springfield with a list of bills he wanted to get through the state General Assembly, he did sponsor some important legislation that will positively affect his district, which includes NIU.

“We put some dollars into education, but not only primary and secondary education, but also higher education. We even got more funds than what the governor had recommended,” he said.

Wirsing was also a cosponsor of legislation that would have given NIU its own governing board by eliminating the Board of Regents. He said House Speaker Michael Madigan assigned the bill to an executive committee and the bill never “saw the light of day.”

Republicans are the minority party in the House, which made their legislative victories even more significant.

He said his legislative victories included the passage of an agriculture-related bill which he sponsored. The legislation allows major food processing companies to use some of their organic production by-products as fertilizer, thus reducing landfill and acting as a good compost.

“If it came out of the ground, it should be allowed to return into the ground,” Wirsing said.

He said he also sponsored legislation which passed and gave the Byron Forest Preserve Board an elected board instead of an appointed one.

But Wirsing said the highlight of his first legislative session was the passage of a bill which eliminated the so-called “granny tax.” The granny tax was a tax on private nursing home residents that had been used to help fund public nursing homes. The elimination of the tax amounts to a savings of about $2,300 per private nursing home resident, Wirsing said.

He said the main platform for his first campaign was twofold, resting primarily on economic development and better methods of funding public education.

Wirsing said he wanted to find alternative funding sources for public education to reduce the dependence of educational programs on state tax dollars.

On business, Wirsing said, “Government should not serve as a roadblock to economic development, but should instead act to enhance it.

“After my first term as a state representative I realize it will require an ongoing effort to reach both of these goals. My challenge and promise to the people of the 70th district is to continue working hard on both of these fronts,” he said.