Elaine Viskant, 59, has announced her candidacy for mayor of Fishers.
Viskant, a Fishers resident for the past 18 years, said she is running because she is against mass transit and Common Core and moved to the area for low taxes. She also said she has been an activist in the background of several key area issues: development, environment and public safety.
“The mass transit for the future image is irrelevant since we are almost land locked now,” Viskant said. “It only interests a handful of people and Section 8 incentives actually relieved pressure for mass transit. It also sets a dangerous precedent for outside interests to control local taxes and redistribute assets.
“Unlike one candidate, I don’t feel that better schools will be accomplished with teacher raises. More money has been the solution for absent parenting of our schools just like it is for individual children. It also neglects all other town services. Approximately 52.4 percent of our local property taxes, 14 percent of state taxes and 2.4 percent of federal taxes go toward education,” she added.
Viskant grew up in Chicago, where she attended a junior college and the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. She earned three professional licenses in Illinois: Real Estate Broker, Health and Life Insurance, and Series 7 Investment Banker.
As a senior credit analyst, Viskant was responsible for roughly $400 million.
“I was an expert in court for two major university medical centers in Chicago: namely, Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Loyola University Medical Center,” she said.
In addition, Viskant did National Loss Recovery for The Associates Finance Corporation, among other jobs, including working for former Governor Mitch Daniels’ tax amnesty program. She added that she has indirectly done “award-winning work” for the Indiana Department of Revenue.
Viskant has been married to her husband Greg for over 25 years. Greg is retired from AT&T and was responsible for 911 outage resolutions in five states. His uncle was one of the Navy pilots that searched for the survivors of the U.S.S. Indianapolis during WWII.
The Viskants have one son that attends college; he recently joined the Indiana National Guard.
“We are proud new members of the NRA,” Viskant said. She added that she would like to better monitor contractor jobs in Fishers to possibly lower foreclosure rate and list state declared emergency resources.
“I’d also like to see a different sort of park for two unrepresented age groups. Plus, some interactive classroom work at the middle school level,” she added.