Wirepoints’ Ted Dabrowski, Mark Glennon and John Klingner give the facts too few know about Gov. Pritzker’s false optimism:
Gov. J.B. Pritzker has a narrative he wants Illinoisans believe. “The narrative about Illinois,” he said at the Chicago Economic Club, “is that we are a state on the rise. That we’ve had our challenges, that’s for sure. That we were going in the wrong direction, but we are turning the ship in the right direction, and we are powering ourselves forward.”
And during Wednesday’s State of the State he added, “I’m here to tell the carnival barkers, the doomsayers, the paid professional critics — the State of our State is growing stronger each day.”
But Pritzker is mistaken to think Illinoisans will buy false optimism. Pritzker hasn’t passed or promoted a single structural spending or governance reform that justifies positivity. He’s categorically rejected a pension amendment. His property tax commission can’t put together a coherent report. He has refused to change the spending patterns in the state. And he’s not going to convince anybody that his tough talk about corruption is real unless he tells Michael Madigan to hit the road.
With nothing to back him up, the governor is asking Illinoisans to simply ignore the reality they are living in — that taxes are too high, services are being crowded out, real home values continue to fall, and that residents are leaving at a record pace.
And as for the “doomsayers,” they’re only relating what Illinoisans and people, businesses and organizations across the country already know: that Illinois is a national outlier. Most are simply reporting the winners and losers across the country, and Illinois is consistently the loser:
— U.S. News and World Report concluded Illinois is the worst state in the nation for “fiscal stability,” while states like Tennessee and Indiana are named two of the best.
Read more about Gov. Pritzker’s false optimism: Wirepoints
Image credits: Wirepoints.
