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* The Peoria Journal-Star asked candidates “What help do small businesses still need due to pandemic?” Here’s Richard Irvin’s response…
When J.B. Pritzker ordered our business to close their doors, we worked quickly in Aurora to provide local businesses with the support they needed. But local governments can only do so much when Springfield keeps trying to raise taxes on small businesses. Cutting income taxes and delivering property tax relief will be an enormous help to small businesses in Illinois – and give them the support they need to recover from the pandemic.
Local property tax collections are about equal to state revenues. By far the biggest property tax driver is education spending. The state already picks up most of the tab on K-12 pension costs. So, unless you have a magic plan to drastically reduce the state’s teacher pension costs (which Irvin doesn’t, as far as I can tell), the only meaningful relief at the local school level is to provide more state investments. And that costs money, which you won’t have if you cut state income taxes.
This whole “The taxes are too high and the spending is too low” argument is very common, but quite tiresome.
* Gov. Pritzker’s answer to the same question…
I believe that protecting the health of our citizens is the most important thing I can do as Governor, while also doing everything possible to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on our economy. I have worked to save lives AND livelihoods and have always followed the science to ensure our economy would reopen when we had the proper tools to mitigate the spread, like masks and vaccines. We created the nation’s largest state program of its kind, providing grants and other support to over 12,000 small businesses. We led with equity and prioritized hard-hit industries in awarding state funding, including businesses that didn’t qualify for federal funds and businesses in disproportionately impacted areas of the state. While Republicans ignored science, encouraged people to inject bleach, lied about the dangers of COVID, and promoted conspiracy theories, I was assisting small businesses and helping workers and their families weather the health and financial impacts of the pandemic.
Yeah, OK, but the question was about what small businesses still need. No answer. At all.
* Jesse Sullivan…
The biggest thing small businesses need is leaders who represent them, rather than the corrupt virtue-signaling insiders in Springfield. Government is too often focused on making sure the insiders get their cut. We saw that in the past two years, and we’ve seen it for the entirety of J.B. Pritzker’s term.
I’ve been an entrepreneur and job creator, helping small-business owners all over the world create the jobs of the future. I know what it takes to foster a business-friendly environment, from lower taxes to regulatory certainty, and I will bring that commitment to growth here to Illinois.
Small businesses deserve the right to earn a living, without fear that they could be shut down again at any moment. I will deliver that for Illinois – as the first step of making our state the best in the nation to hold a job, raise a family, or run a business.
The question was about what small business still need because of the pandemic, Jesse.
Bailey and Rabine didn’t respond.
…Adding… From the debate…
Sullivan claimed he could save $10 billion in the state budget, citing only a planned hiring freeze, planned pension reforms and local government consolidation.
Even for him, that’s ludicrous.
posted by Rich Miller
Friday, May 27, 22 @ 10:54 am
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Irvin did a good job regurgitating the talking points from Griffin’s campaign team. It’s all baloney, but it sounds good.
JB could have done a better job. There were efforts to respond to business needs, but nobody suffering will consider it enough.
Comment by Norseman Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:03 am
Yeah, weak stuff all around. At least Pritzker has a record to point to.
Comment by Benjamin Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:09 am
As Irvin should know, campaigning is easy. Governing is difficult.
Comment by low level Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:15 am
GOP will say go backwards on minimum wage so these businesses can exploit labor as before. We have to hold the line on living wage. Small business is always under-capitalized and riding a tight margin between income and expenses, so I’d create lines of credit they could tap for those sudden emergency expenses or short term shutdowns, with low or no interest as long as they pay back balance every year. Provisional on always following state regs for health and safety. This is basically what the BIG grants were for during the height of the pandemic. A number of eateries never participated due to paperwork being complex, or because stiggnit and whining about health regs was more important.
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:17 am
==Yeah, OK, but the question was about what small businesses still need. No answer. At all.==
At least Governor Pritzker’s answer was likely still much shorter than how Governor Quinn would have answered a similar question 10 years ago.
Comment by NonAFSCMEStateEmployeeFromChatham Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:20 am
If you don’t like the answer, don’t ask the question. Seems like campaigns are just a bunch of talking points regurgitated over and over. Depressing.
Comment by Sir Reel Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:26 am
A “hiring freeze” when the state is severely understaffed….brilliant.
Comment by Gordon Willis Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:27 am
@Rich, == This whole “The taxes are too high and the spending is too low” argument is very common, but quite tiresome. ==
And it is a completely nonsensical argument divorced from reality. It would be like me complaining that my intake of beer is too low, but my intake of calories is too high. Unless the person saying this expects a leprechaun to show up with a pot of gold to fund government operations, it is a useless phrase that should instantly disqualify the person saying it.
Comment by Homebody Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:28 am
Almost fell for the answers until it was correctly pointed out that these three did not answer the question.
Hats off to the OH Star for asking good questions.
The Sullivan claim of saving 10 Billion needs some reviewing. Best to stick to facts as we know them to be in the real world.
Comment by Back to the Future Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:29 am
PJ Star
Would blame the error on spell check, but more likely user error.
Comment by Back to the Future Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:31 am
What is Sullivan doing in this race? He has no clue about the office. He doesn’t seem to have much enthusiasm for it. He is such an odd duck.
Bailey needs to cut a deal with him to exit the race so Bailey can absorb his bible thumpers. He should offer him a cabinet position in his administration. Say, Crypto Czar.
Comment by Henry Francis Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:39 am
I would assume there are some California tech bros that are pretty upset with their investment in Jesse Sullivan.
He is an absolute train wreck.
Comment by So_Ill Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:50 am
Henry Francis
“Crypto Czar”
Now that was funny.
Comment by Back to the Future Friday, May 27, 22 @ 11:53 am
Reading these . . . um . . . answers, it occurred to me that maybe candidates should have to complete simulations, sort of like pilots do before actually getting in the cockpit of a real airplane. That way, voters might find out a little bit more just how much candidates actually know about the office they’re running for. Because it seems from what they say here, most of them don’t really have much of a grip on it.
Comment by Flapdoodle Friday, May 27, 22 @ 12:05 pm
I would extend and improve JB’s BIG grant program that was used in the pandemic, to create essentially no-interest lines of credit for small businesses like restaurants, for use when they hit an unplanned expense or temporary health closure or reduction. BIG was a good program, but apparently hard to apply for, or, some conservatives preferred to whine and be about “stiggnit” and be performative about defying health rules, than actually taking the help they were offered.
Restaurants especially are almost always under-capitalized and on very thin margins. A no-interest line of credit or outright grant for a specific expense, would carry them thru to better times.
Another thing JB could do is use DCEO to put together more small business incubators with shared utility and overhead costs, to house little businesses like nail salons and pet groomers and etc. The very small, 3-5person shops.
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Friday, May 27, 22 @ 12:23 pm
In fairness, it’s a hard question. Does anyone know what the state could do to help small businesses other than ordering a pallet of magic beans?
Comment by Excessively Rabid Friday, May 27, 22 @ 12:41 pm
The answers by the GOP candidates all amount to fairy dust and magic beans. It sounds good to the MAGA crowd but for anyone with a functioning brain it is just meaningless blather.
Comment by Manchester Friday, May 27, 22 @ 12:42 pm
Shucks, this would have been a good opportunity to get advice from Bailey on how to get one of those forgiven PPP loans.
Comment by Southern Friday, May 27, 22 @ 2:34 pm
How about some kind of exchange network where suppliers could be listed. So if you are a small grocer and you want a source of IL cows, you go to the website and find an IL farmer that sells cows. Or pigs, vegetables, fruits, widgets, refined soy bean oil, etc. The eat local movement is a thing and with transport costs going up, it might become more popular. That kind of program might also encourage more solidarity between regions of the state.
The grocer where I go buys whole cows from a northwestern IL farm. The price of beef has not gone up there like it has elsewhere because they are independent of the packing houses, don’t have high transport costs due to less distance, and the prices are already kind of high. On the other hand it has the best beef I have been able to buy at a supermarket.
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, May 27, 22 @ 3:28 pm
restaurants fail, they always have. They need to be made whole for the losses they took as a result of government actions, but not for customers’ reaction the pandemic or inflation. Those are normal business risks.
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, May 27, 22 @ 3:32 pm