In the past month, Governor Bruce Rauner gave two different speeches. Back on January 27, he gave the State of the State Address, followed up by an address on the budget on February 17.
The first thing that struck me was how he lauded the efforts of law enforcement officials to engage with their communities, a bright spot to start off the speech.
The three major themes of the State of the State Address were on creating an environment for job growth in Illinois, making government more efficient, and enhancing Illinois schools. Certainly efficiency was a theme that connected to how schools are run and how government does its part to manage the economy.
His tone definitely came across as urging action to make circumstances better for the people of Illinois, in regards to empowering businesses that provide jobs, and in making sure government stays in its appropriate bounds. I was pleased to hear him call for term limits and redistricting reform. While I'm hopeful for redistricting reform, it's pretty hard to say how term limits legislation might happen given the political composition of the Illinois General Assembly.
The budget address was definitely a call for making some tough choices and taking some painful action.
It's definitely going to take a unique kind of collaboration to fix the budget mess in Illinois and spur greater prosperity for all citizens, especially given the pain people will experience to make proposed budget cuts work.
The only hope for things to get going is to have greater collaboration happen in Illinois government, and less focus on political and special interests. At the very least, the people in government could take action on those easier proposals to enact.
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