State Representative Norine Hammond issued the following statement in response to Governor JB Pritzker’s Budget and State of the State address:
“Today, Governor Pritzker broke his promise to Illinois working families. In 2019, Republicans and Democrats worked together to pass the Blue Collar Jobs Act as part of a bipartisan budget and infrastructure plan. Now the Governor is going back on his word, proving once again that he cannot be trusted.
“Illinois has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs since the start of this pandemic, due in large part to the Governor’s rule-by-executive-order. Gov. Pritzker shut down our economy, forcing many small businesses to lay off employees or close for good. Given the massive job losses and the Governor’s utter failure to fix the unemployment benefits disaster at IDES, it is unconscionable for him to now eliminate important job creation incentives that are desperately needed to revitalize our economy.
“The revenue increases that the Governor is proposing are just another attempt by him to raise taxes on thousands of small businesses across Illinois. The Governor’s plan to hit small businesses with a nearly $1 billion tax hike threatens our economic recovery and will result in more job losses for Illinois families.
“A colleague of mine recently said, ‘The best stimulus check is a good-paying job.’ The last thing the Governor should be doing is taking away job creation incentives.
“After a year of business closures, job losses, IDES failures and the tragic deaths of our veterans in the State’s care, we heard nothing today about how the Governor’s budget works for the people of Illinois. What we did hear was an attempt to dress up a budget to impress the bond houses.”