From solving the state's budget crisis to reforming workers' compensation, here are Gov. Rauner's best small business sound bites from the State of the State Speech.
5 Best Sound Bites from Rauner’s State of the State
In his State of the State Speech, Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner urged state lawmakers to “achieve a grand compromise” in the state’s deadlocked budget battle. Rauner also talked about key issues to small business owners, from workers’ compensation to property taxes.
Here are the best small business sound bites from the Governor’s speech.
Budget:
“All of us in this Chamber had a difficult year together in 2015, as we debated a budget with structural reform. But it is not too late for this General Assembly to make historic progress for the people of Illinois.
We came together to solve a budget crisis early in 2015. We came together to improve our Unemployment Insurance system, benefiting employers and workers alike. We came together to pass historic criminal justice reforms and much needed police reforms.”
State Economy:
“Unfortunately, Illinois’ economy has been split in two, one part with modest growth, the other in decline. There are areas within 90 minutes of O’Hare Airport that compete with other expensive mega-cities around the world. Thanks to access to global transportation infrastructure, first class universities, and world class cultural amenities, white-collar communities in the Chicago area have mostly been able to overcome the financial mismanagement that is now strangling Chicago and Cook County.
But it’s difficult in the rest of the state: Harvey, Blue Island, Kankakee, Rockford, East Moline, Peoria, Decatur, Danville, Mt. Vernon, and Marion. Those communities have to compete with other states like Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina. And too often, we’ve been losing.
In recent years, we’ve lost more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs.”
Property Taxes:
“One of the most critical ways to lower our cost of living and compete for more good jobs is to reduce our property tax burden. We have the second-highest property taxes in the country. They are crushing homeowners and small business owners from one end
of the state to the other.”
Reforms:
“To see more people employed at high pay, we need to stop crushing employers. To create good jobs, we need more job creators.
I understand that union leaders and trial lawyers are putting pressure on you to keep the status quo — but if we don’t offer a competitive environment for businesses, pretty soon the unions won’t have any more jobs to unionize and the trial lawyers won’t have any more businesses to sue.
All I’m asking for is a return to balance in this state — ’cause right now, we don’t have competitive balance and jobs are leaving.”
Workers Compensation:
“To bring good jobs to Illinois, we have to make Illinois a place where it is good to do business. We must fix our workers comp system, labor regulations, liability costs, and property taxes that make us uncompetitive, and push job creators out.”
“The cost of worker’s comp is the biggest factor driving our job losses. If we simply aligned our workers’ comp costs with those of a state like Massachusetts – which is hardly a bastion of conservatism – we can save state and local taxpayers over $300 million per year, while protecting those who suffer workplace injuries, and grow more careers at higher wages.”
