On Jan. 29, Governor J.B. Pritzker addressed the General Assembly to deliver the annual State of the State Address before members of both houses of the state legislature.
State Senator Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) issued the following statement after the address:
“While I can commend the Administration for recognizing the accomplishments achieved through bipartisan compromise in the 2019 spring legislature, there are still fundamental issues that need to be addressed in the General Assembly. We’ve had three Illinois Democrats in the state legislature indicted on charges of corruption, creating a serious lack of trust in the integrity of lawmakers. Compounding the question of integrity is the state’s current system of drawing maps for legislative boundaries, which has historically been geared toward protecting current officeholders and favoring the majority party,” said Senator Fowler. “Meanwhile, taxpayers are facing a crushing property tax burden, businesses are still reeling from the consequences of a costly minimum wage increase and Illinois continues to lose residents to bordering states. These are critical issues that have to be addressed in order to restore faith in the system of governance, provide relief to our taxpayers and ensure that the people have a voice in state government that is heard, protected and enforced.”