* SJ-R…
Gov. Bruce Rauner started a multi-city tour of small businesses in Springfield Monday, saying long-term changes in the state’s business and political climate are needed.
Asked at Custom Cup, a coffee shop in the capital city, about what businesses should do in the short term if the nearly two-year state budget impasse is causing them cash-flow problems, Rauner reiterated his themes about needed structural changes.
“I say to them the exact same thing they say to me: stay strong, stay persistent,” Rauner said. “We’re in difficult times, but we’re in difficult times to get to a better day and a better future.”
He said the changes he’s recommended including worker’s compensation reform, regulatory relief, a property tax freeze and government consolidation will “make businesses have more confidence in our state.”
“Term limits and fair maps also restore confidence,” he said.
* But the advance team may not have chosen well when he got to Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup in Shirley…
[Gov. Rauner] said “structural changes” also are needed — including term limits and “fair map” redistricting reforms — to restore investor confidence in the state.
With their business literally rooted in McLean County, there is little danger of Funks Grove Pure Maple Sirup of the Funks leaving the state.
Mike Funk said they have carved out a niche and existing regulations have not been a burden to their business.
After Rauner left, Debby Funk said, “We hope the governor will compromise and pass the budget.”
It would’ve been nice if they hadn’t waited until after he’d left to say that, but they’re just civilians and he’s the governor - and a customer (he bought two jugs of syrup).
- Ole' Nelson - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 3:39 pm:
I am going to order some maple sirup from them right away! Enough of your nonsense, Governor!
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 3:45 pm:
===“I say to them the exact same thing they say to me: stay strong, stay persistent,” Rauner said. “We’re in difficult times, but we’re in difficult times to get to a better day and a better future.”===
This IS Governor Rauner, making clear…
1) This squeezing the beast is a plan that people need to “stay strong, stay persistent,”. The only way to interpret this IS Rauner forcing Social Services to close, Higher Education to close, and even Democrat Diana Rauner sees this as a business decision.
2) Rauner 100% thinks he’s winning with the destruction going exactly as planned.
3) The agenda itself is more important than the damage being done to Illinois.
It’s mind-boggling.
Rauner says he’s having fun destroying Illinois too, to anyone who asks. How sad is that?
- Red Rider - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 3:51 pm:
Funks grove, maybe he’s on his way to one of his mansions up north, bad fishn to much rain at the house.
- Johnny Tractor - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 3:54 pm:
And for those wondering, “sirup” is a deliberate choice of spelling. It means they don’t add sugar to their product - they boil their sap, bottle it and sell way too much of it to customers like me. (Still have 1/2 gallon left from last year.)
- Cubs in '16 - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 3:56 pm:
small business owner: “Gov. Rauner, the bank is foreclosing on our business because of cash flow problems due to the lack of a budget. What can we do?”
Gov. Rauner: “Stay strong, stay persistent.”
- Stan - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 4:02 pm:
-we hope the governor will pass a budget.- The GA passes a budget. The Gov signs one…
- Oswego Willy - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 4:05 pm:
===The Gov signs one…===
Rauner has only vetoed budgetary bills, but did sign K-12 funding, proving Rauner, as all governors, need a budget they will sign, and not work to have his/her vetoes stand.
- don the legend - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 4:22 pm:
Really? Our Governor tells vendors who are owed nearly 13 Billion dollars to ‘be strong’.
That’s sounds like something a grass bowl might say.
- Ole' Nelson - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 4:26 pm:
“We’re in difficult times, but we’re in difficult times to get to a better day and a better future.”
A better future for whom? A Randian fantasy world with low taxes and cheap labor with most of the money going straight to the top?
- illini - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 4:31 pm:
And I thought that business owners and job creators get excited about all those structural changes - term limits, redistricting, property tax freezes etc..
Guess no one told the Governor that a budget is more important to many of them than these items on the Governors “wish list”.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 5:09 pm:
Governors do indeed pass budget - or kill them - by influencing or in this case ordering lawmakers’ votes.
We are about 18 months past the time for word games.
- wordslinger - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 5:25 pm:
Do people Downstate understand they’re taking the worst beating in all of this?
- The Dude Abides - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 5:26 pm:
The Governor acts like he is struggling day to day too like the thousands who are suffering from this impasse. He is just an egotistical, stubborn man who puts his personal agenda ahead of the citizens that he’s supposed to be helping.
He is enjoying doing this damage to the state which is going to take years to fix by his successors. The last thing we needed when Quinn left was a guy who failed at his job but that’s what we have. It’s just so sad, the people of Illinois deserve a good Governor and we need one in the worst kind of way.
- Huh? - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 5:49 pm:
Tractor - have to disagree about the spelling of sirup. This is an archaic spelling from the middle ages and has nothing to do with the process of making maple syrup.
- Morty - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 6:04 pm:
“I say to them the exact same thing they say to me: stay strong, stay persistent,” Rauner said. “We’re in difficult times, but we’re in difficult times to get to a better day and a better future.”
Who? Who has actually said that?
Just Bruce.
And Other Bruce
Pyscho
- Anon221 - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 6:04 pm:
OK… Before a war over syrup or sirup breaks out, please read this history:
http://m.feastmagazine.com/dine/features/article_f1840410-c44c-11e5-8236-436eff650345.html
- Morty - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 6:07 pm:
Bruce is really living in a bizare world of him own creation. Will one of his “superstars” finally stand up and tell him
‘No Bruce, you can’t win a war against the sea”?
- Rabid - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 6:41 pm:
A wise man makes all his decisions,
an ignorant man follows public opinion.
Chinese proverb
- Huh? - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 6:52 pm:
1.4% is going to organize a motorcycle ride to Funk’s Grove. I wonder if he knows they are a seasonal business that closes when the syrup is all sold.
- Former hillrod - Monday, May 1, 17 @ 7:09 pm:
@ Huh?
He does now.
- Anon - Tuesday, May 2, 17 @ 7:15 am:
has anyone seen one shred of statistical evidence of what the Governor claims will make the state better. I have seen no studies or justification for his recommendations. It is about time that there be justifications for the recommendations and not just I say so that has been the stalwart statements throughout
- Arock - Tuesday, May 2, 17 @ 7:24 am:
“Do people Downstate understand they’re taking the worst beating in all of this?” We have been taking a beating for the last two to three decades when industry started relocating. We have lost about 7,000 jobs in manufacturing since the early eighties, that in a town of less than 40,000.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 2, 17 @ 7:33 am:
===We have been taking a beating for the last two to three decades when industry started relocating. We have lost about 7,000 jobs in manufacturing since the early eighties, that in a town of less than 40,000.===
… so now you want the state universities closed and the downstate social services closed too?
You think that’s not the plan? You think this is accidental?
You are cutting off your nose to spite your face… that’s a pathetic way to make a point… close state universities and social services downstate to probe a point…
…you must be proud.
- Rabid - Tuesday, May 2, 17 @ 7:45 am:
Term limits decided for me who I can and can’t vote for