Statement from Senate President John Cullerton on the State of the State

From Illinois Senate President John Cullerton

Last year this state faced historic challenges. We had impeachment trial of the former Governor, a historic drop in revenues, record deficits, and significant job loss in the state. But last year was also a year of tremendous accomplishment in ethics, bipartisanship and capital.

I pledged to do everything I could to pass a comprehensive jobs bill for Illinois. Senate Democrats led the way on stabilizing the economy by drafting and passing the first capital construction bill in a decade. This session we will continue the effort to stabilize the economy by creating jobs and growing businesses.

During the past several months, my caucus has met with frontline economic development professionals to create a proactive economic agenda for Illinois. In the next 30 days, Senate Democrats will unveil a comprehensive set of initiatives to invest in the people of Illinois, build upon our economic strengths, and protect the pocketbooks of taxpayers.

We are going to invest in the people of Illinois

• Illinois must help small businesses through tax incentives to keeping and creating jobs.
• We will invest in Community Colleges to help Illinois workers gain new skills and training.
• Illinois must find innovative ways to help families pay their bills and stay in their homes.

We are going to build upon our economic strengths

• We must modernize job creation tools for Illinois communities.
• Illinois should reduce fees so businesses can keep and create jobs.
• We must promote key industries to grown our economy and create jobs.

We are going to protect the pocketbooks of taxpayers

• We must stop government fraud through greater oversight.
• We need greater budget transparency and accountability.
• Illinois must ensure that banks invest in small businesses to help keep and create jobs.

This session we face many of the same challenges that we did last year. In order to move forward with plans to stabilize the budget and our economy, we are going to need bipartisan support for increased revenue and budget reforms. I look forward to working with the Governor and both parties to improve Illinois’ economic outlook.