Kendall County Times

Kendall County Republican Central Committee Chairman James Marter fumes that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s shutdown order is now the source of state’s biggest problems.

“That and all the high taxes are the two things that are driving people out of Illinois right now,” Marter told the Kendall County Times. “I keep seeing friends move away and that’s what it comes down to. When you commit to putting the small business industry out of business, this is what you get. Good business people will look for other places where they can go and have their best chance to operate. Right now, that’s not Illinois.”

The latest Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) data shows that Illinois has lost jobs in two of the last three months. All of this decline comes when much of the rest of the country is showing signs of stabilizing with seven straight months of job growth.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the job losses across the state have come in the leisure and hospitality industry, which lost 27,400 during November. With the governor’s ban on indoor dining still in effect, Marter worries things may get worse before they get better.

“When people aren’t going out at all, it really makes it hard on restaurants and the hospitality industry in general,” Marter said. “The sad thing is there’s no proof that there’s any greater danger patronizing one of those places than one of the big box operations that really haven’t been impacted.”

Marter points out all of this is happening at a time when the governor continues to entertain the thought of increased taxes.

“I can’t imagine being in the governor’s shoes with the way he’s thinking and doing things,” Marter said. “He’s not listening to the people of the state and not doing what’s in the best interest of many of them. Really, he’s not doing what the job he has requires him to do.”