The following statement was released by SEIU Healthcare Illinois President Keith Kelleher in response to Governor Bruce Rauner’s Illinois Budget Address on February 15, 2017:
“As our state sinks deeper into an abyss of financial purgatory, Governor Rauner once again has failed to fulfill a governor’s primary duty – to show leadership.
“That duty of leadership requires the Governor to present a balanced budget once a year for consideration by state legislators. We are entering an unprecedented third fiscal year without a budget and the third year in which Rauner has failed to perform his duty.
“While he casts blame at everyone but himself, the State of Illinois has become the laughing stock of the nation. Meanwhile, the Governor uses his wealth to hold the budget and members of his own party hostage.
“Rauner’s ‘Turnaround Agenda’ has put social services out of business, closed child care facilities, put parents out of work, and forced colleges to lay off professors and downsize their student population, with the result that some colleges have come close to having to close their doors.
“Rauner says he wants to work with legislators to craft a budget. That process begins with the Governor presenting one that is balanced.
“The people of Illinois have had enough. Governor: Do your job.”
# # #