Reactions varied across the state from lawmakers on Governor J.B. Pritzker’s first state of the state address yesterday. Overall, Republicans said they were a little pleased at the governor’s mention of bipartisanship but there needs to be more work done to include Republicans at the bargaining table for legislation.
Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer says he agreed with the governor on a couple of key important issues but something needs to be done about taxes and ethics reforms. Davidsmeyer said he was disappointed that the governor didn’t discuss the fair map question that will happen after the 2020 census. He said that he agreed with the governor about Illinois having great citizens but that the state should get out of the way and let them live as they please without being taxed out of the state.
Davidsmeyer and State Senator Steve McClure echoed calls from across the GOP for a fair legislative map for representation. Davidsmeyer said that the fair map issue could be solved with a computer program with aggregate population data while McClure called on a non-partisan map task force to draw the map for proper representation after the census is taken. McClure said that not having fair maps is the cause for corruption in the state and across the country.
Representative Norine Hammond said she liked that the governor touched on common sense and decency as well as the call in fixing property tax problems for the state.
Sangamon County Representative Tim Butler expressed his disappointment in the governor’s lack of addressing the downstate economy. He said that he hopes the General Assembly will tackle revitalizing the downstate economy as part of the legislative session this Spring.
Several other mixed reactions came from Illinois Chamber of Commerce, the Illinois Manufacturer’s Association, the Illinois Primary Healthcare Association among others. Most of the mixture of reaction largely came along party lines in the General Assembly. Major ethics reforms and property taxes remain the two largest issues that the Assembly’s committees now face in the early part of this legislation session.