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Rep. Tracy: Governor's State of the State Address Lacks Answers to Most Pressing Problems For Immediate Release Springfield, IL...State Representative Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) said that she would have liked to hear more proposals to address what has become a full-blown financial crisis in the state of Illinois, but stated that the timing of the speech acted as an "unfortunate roadblock to real answers." "This is the first state of the state address we have heard in five years, and unfortunately the timing coincided with our extremely early primary date, meaning the tough decisions that must be made were simply glossed over," said Rep. Tracy referring to an estimated $6 billion in unpaid bills and record multi-billion dollar deficit. Governor Quinn did lay out ideas to address continuing concerns regarding cleaning up corruption throughout state government, but it was the lack of concrete solutions to Illinois impending financial meltdown that lawmakers were hoping Quinn would concentrate on. "The longer we continue to ignore the elephant in the room that is a thirteen billion dollar deficit, the more destructive it becomes," said Tracy. "Just last week a report revealed that Illinois lost 52,000 manufacturing jobs last year alone. If we are going to bring jobs back to this state and began to re-grow our economy, we must first get our own fiscal house in order. "Unpopular decisions will have to be made, but if we are going to discuss the current condition of the state and be honest with Illinois residents, then these topics must be addressed. We have to make serious efforts to reign in Medicaid expenses and bring about needed reforms to our pension systems, but none of those topics were even mentioned," Rep. Tracy said. "Most importantly we must reform the system by which our state manages revenue. If we don't enact real caps on spending and learn to function on a lean budget, we will simply end up facing the same mess year after year." |
