Governor Rauner used his State of the State Address as a call to action for local lawmakers to come together to improve our State, one step at a time.
“We have big challenges and like many of you, I’m frustrated by the slow pace of change in Springfield. But, with great challenge comes great opportunity. By working together, we can overcome any obstacle,” said Governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner.
Making the State more competitive and attractive to job creators is one of his main goals- as it is here in Naperville after credit ratings have dipped.
“There’s a question mark when it comes to Illinois. Right now there’s some instability and I think that’s why we were downgraded in Moody’s because of the instability. Where we are in Naperville we’re very fortunate because there is such a strong business climate. I do think it can continue regionally,” said Nicki Anderson, President and CEO of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Doing so, however, will require a budget, something the State hasn’t seen in 18 months let alone a balanced one in decades. Rauner hopes this is the year they can finally get it done.
“When it comes to the budget, we all can agree Illinois has to do something different. Our administration has offered many proposals to achieve a truly balanced budget with changes that fundamentally fix our broken system. We must remember that to keep budgets balanced in the future, our rate of economic growth must be higher than our rate of government spending growth,” said Rauner.
Naperville has seen the downfalls of the budget impasse, with local organizations vying for help to stay afloat.
As Rauner laid out, bipartisan cooperation will be key to fixing these problems, something that’s already begun here in Naperville.
“I think what works great in Naperville is the fact that we do have these bipartisan relationships, it’s all about working together,” added Anderson. “We may agree to disagree in some area, but at the end of the day it truly is what’s in the best interest of our community, our businesses and the future success of Naperville.”
Illinois’ budget impasse is the longest any state’s been without a budget since World War II.
Naperville News 17’s Alyssa Bochenek reports.
