{"id":85169,"date":"2020-02-25T10:25:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T16:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=85169"},"modified":"2020-02-25T10:25:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T16:25:16","slug":"pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/","title":{"rendered":"Pritzker condemns corruption, celebrates economic gains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> By Jackson Elliott<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Medill Reports <\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">Protecting corruption in Illinois government is \u201cno longer acceptable,\u201d Governor J.B. Pritzker said in his 2020 State of the State address to the Illinois legislature last Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>His remarks followed the guilty plea of former State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) on Tuesday for corruption charges.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers responded to his statement with applause that rapidly escalated into a standing ovation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s no longer enough to sit idle while under-the-table deals, extortion, or bribery persist,\u201d the governor said.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>To stop corruption, the governor said it was time to\u00a0 end the practice of legislators becoming lobbyists but did not provide details on how he would do so.\u00a0 He also said he hired people \u201cwho were diverse in gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, geography and life experience\u201d instead of hiring \u201cthe same old faces that get jobs year in and year out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some critics, however, accused the governor of hypocrisy. In 2015, Pritzker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/opinion\/editorials\/ct-edit-pritzker-toilet-fraud-blanchard-20181002-story.html\">removed all the toilets<\/a> from his second mansion, reclassifying it as an \u201cuninhabitable structure\u201d and receiving $330,000 in property tax breaks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe governor owned a mansion that he didn\u2019t pay taxes on because he took all the toilets out,\u201d Illinois business owner Dan Musick said. \u201cHe\u2019s blowing smoke. \u2026 I don\u2019t think he has a moral leg to stand on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, Musick said he appreciated the governor\u2019s plan to cut property taxes by consolidating city pensions for police and firefighters. He said lower property taxes could save him a few thousand dollars each year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s a great thing if they can do that,\u201d Musick said.<\/p>\n<p>In his speech, the governor also celebrated last year\u2019s economic successes. Illinois now has 6.2 million jobs, an unemployment rate lower than its Midwestern peers and growth in every major region of the state, Pritzker said. He also said those who say Illinois is heading toward a disaster are working to make things worse.<\/p>\n<p>But Illinois Policy Institute research analyst Bryce Hill said that Pritzker\u2019s numbers were inaccurate. Unemployment only remains low because many Illinoisans have stopped looking for jobs or left the state, he said, adding that Illinois lags behind the rest of the nation and surrounding states in job creation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf our workforce would have grown at the national average, our unemployment rate would actually be 4.4%, which would be up from a year ago,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>He also refuted Pritzker\u2019s claim that the entire state was growing economically. The towns of Davenport, Peoria, Moline all experienced employment decline over the last year, and the state lost over a hundred thousand residents who moved out, Hill said.<\/p>\n<p>Pritzker\u2019s bipartisan Rebuild Illinois bill will repair Illinois roads and bridges while creating 500,000 jobs will improve the state\u2019s infrastructure and help it to grow economically, the governor said in his speech.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRebuild Illinois will transform our infrastructure even as we create a lot more opportunities for thousands of young people with steady work that will help make sure that our economy works for everyone,\u201d Pritzker said.<\/p>\n<p>He also said he would undo discrimination, reform the criminal justice system and implement higher income taxes on people who earned more money.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time for us to recommit ourselves to the hard work of bringing prosperity and opportunity to all communities in Illinois through a fairer tax system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Illinois Manufacturers\u2019 Association president and CEO Mark Denzler said in a press release that although Pritzker\u2019s infrastructure bill will move the state forward, \u201cmoving to a graduated income tax and hiking energy costs on businesses that create jobs and drive our economy is the wrong approach.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Pritzker\u2019s address featured a hearty condemnation of corruption delivered to Illinois lawmakers. Pictured: Governor J.B. Pritzker delivers the State of the State Address in Springfield. (Photo Credit: Ted Schurter\/The State Journal-Register via AP).<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jackson Elliott Medill Reports Protecting corruption in Illinois government is \u201cno longer acceptable,\u201d Governor J.B. Pritzker said in his 2020 State of the State address to the Illinois legislature last Wednesday. His remarks followed the guilty plea of former State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) on Tuesday for corruption charges. Lawmakers responded to his statement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":663,"featured_media":85170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2951,4559],"tags":[87,111,4943,677],"class_list":["post-85169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politicsnational-security","category-winter-2019","tag-economy","tag-illinois","tag-j-b-pritzker","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pritzker condemns corruption, celebrates economic gains - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pritzker condemns corruption, celebrates economic gains - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jackson Elliott Medill Reports Protecting corruption in Illinois government is \u201cno longer acceptable,\u201d Governor J.B. Pritzker said in his 2020 State of the State address to the Illinois legislature last Wednesday. His remarks followed the guilty plea of former State Sen. Martin Sandoval (D-Chicago) on Tuesday for corruption charges. Lawmakers responded to his statement [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-25T16:25:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/J.B.Picture.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"974\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jacksonelliott2020\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jacksonelliott2020\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/\",\"name\":\"Pritzker condemns corruption, celebrates economic gains - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/J.B.Picture.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-02-25T16:25:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/a674bedd6d1483ca56bcbba31d93adff\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/pritzker-condemns-corruption-celebrates-economic-gains\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/J.B.Picture.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/medill.wordpress.offload\/WP%20Media%20Folder%20-%20medill-reports-chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/02\/J.B.Picture.png\",\"width\":974,\"height\":650,\"caption\":\"Pritzker\u2019s address featured a hearty condemnation of corruption delivered to Illinois lawmakers. 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