SPRINGFIELD, IL – The following is a statement from State Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) after Governor Pat Quinn’s State of the State address on January 29 in Springfield:
“Governor Quinn kept saying that Illinois is making a comeback throughout his speech, but he must have a different definition of a comeback than I do,” Sen. Rezin said. “Illinois is projected to be last in the nation in job growth, has the worst financial condition of any state, and has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation and the worst credit in the nation. He mentioned that our backlog of bills has gone down, but just a few weeks ago, his own office projected that the backlog will grow from $6 billion to $16 billion by fiscal year 17. People are not fooled. Unfortunately, we are seeing more people leave Illinois than move in due to the fiscal mismanagement and poor job opportunities. Governor Quinn mentioned a few positive initiatives, like incentives for small businesses and improvements to infrastructure, but once again we saw lofty goals with little details on how to pay for them and no plan for how to get our fiscal house in order.”
“I was also disappointed that we did not hear any mention of education funding reform to address the unequal funding to schools across the state,” Sen. Rezin said. “Hopefully he will decide to address that issue during his budget message next month as it should be a top priority to him and the legislature.”
Sen. Rezin is pictured here on January 29 in the House chamber listening to Governor Quinn’s State of the State address.