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* Transcription of Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s inaugural address…
Well hello, hello. Muy buenas tardes. Good afternoon, Illinois!
I want to start by thanking God as so many have done before me for the many, many blessings in my life including this special moment with all of you.
Thank you to the Honorable Rossana Patricia Fernandez for swearing me in to my 3rd term as your Illinois State Comptroller. Thank you to the Reverend Dr. Lesa Branham for her prayers over me this morning. Those are so appreciated. Thank you, Reverend. Congratulations to Governor Pritzker, Lt. Governor Stratton, Attorney General Raoul, Treasurer Frerichs, and Secretary of State Giannoulias.
I look forward to working with this wonderful team, with Speaker Welch, President Harmon, Leader McCombie and Leader Curran and the 103rd General Assembly as we continue moving our state forward, because improving our state should be a bipartisan affair.
I want to thank my amazing family. Let’s start with my mother Susana – the original firecracker. My Godmother Maria, and my in-laws, Ed and Helene Szostak. Thank you for being here. My greatest blessing, our 10-year-old son David, who is obviously excited to be missing school today. But, let’s be honest. What a great civic lesson to see his mom being sworn in for another term, right? I’m so proud of my son David and I’m so happy and blessed to be his Mami.
My most important thank you goes to the unsung hero in my success as your Comptroller, the yin to my yang, my husband David. He is my anchor. He truly is. He’s my number one advisor, my best friend. He’s my rock and he inspires me every day. And let’s be honest – he is very easy on the eyes. I love you so much, Honey.
And thank you so much to the incredible team I’m blessed to lead at the Comptroller’s Office, for your hard work and dedication to the people of Illinois.
To the men and women in Organized Labor, thank you for always having my back. I got yours too. And to my beloved voters of Illinois. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, for choosing me to serve another term as your Illinois State Comptroller. I am deeply humbled and grateful for your overwhelming support.
***
A few years ago at the Illinois State Fair, the one and only, Secretary of State Jesse White, pulled me aside and said, “Hey Susana, come here. You wanna know how to become the #1 vote getter in the state of Illinois?”
Of course I wanted to know the secret from the only statewide official to ever win all 102 counties in the State of Illinois. He looked me in the eye and said, “The secret is to SHOW UP.” When someone tells you that it’s not worth your time to drive six hours for an event where only 10 people make it, don’t listen to them. You SHOW UP anyway. Those 10 people matter, and they’ll know you care about them. And I know you care.
I do care and I promise you, Secretary, that I’m going to keep showing up. Let me tell you - it’s the best part of the job. Meeting voters and finding out what I can do to make their lives better. Being their voice and restoring their faith in our state.
In November, I asked for your trust through your vote. And thanks to you showing up for me, I stand before you as the new highest vote getter in the State of Illinois. Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And thank you Secretary for not being on the ballot because I would not have come in first place if you had still been on – let’s be honest. But thank you also Secretary, for your years of selfless dedication to our state, for your friendship and for your advice.
And I promise, as I’ve already said, to always show up for Illinoisans the way you have done so beautifully for your entire career. Thank you.
***
People told me I was crazy when I first decided to run for Illinois Comptroller in 2016 during the budget impasse—the worst fiscal crisis in our state’s history. Our bill backlog peaked at $16.7 billion dollars of unpaid bills.
Our Rainy Day Fund was non-existent with less than $60,000 in it. We had suffered 20 years of consecutive credit downgrades.
The average vendor doing business with the state had to wait 210 business days to get paid. Back then, I promised you that—if you sent me to Springfield—I’d deliver a complete and transparent financial turnaround for the State of Illinois. And I delivered on my promise.
No more bill backlog. It’s gone. And I paid it down before receiving a penny of federal ARPA stimulus funds. 6 full credit upgrades on my watch. You heard that right. 6 full credit upgrades.
A RECORD HIGH Rainy Day Fund of over $1 billion dollars and growing.
This is great news. In fact, just last night the General Assembly approved an additional $850 million more for the Rainy Day Fund. We’re on a roll!!
My oldest bill today is only 10 days old. When people say you should run government like a business – I say how about we run it better than a business? That’s what I’m proving we can do here in the State of Illinois.
All my hard work to help people and fix our state’s finances has been to get Illinois ready for its growth spurt. And we are ready. We’re ready because Illinois is the beating heart of this nation.
From the bustling streets of Chicago to the expansive farmland of rural Illinois… to Southern Illinois towns like Cairo where we’re fighting to get that new riverport built. And we get things done when we all pull together.
We want to be the state people look at when they consider how to grow their business, their wealth and families.
I love Illinois with all of my heart. For those who voted for me, thank you for trusting me with another term as your Comptroller. For those who didn’t vote for me, know that I will work for you as passionately as I will for my own family.
Afterall, Illinois is my heart, and each and every one of you, regardless of your party preference, is in my heart. I will work hard to earn and keep your trust.
Lastly, I want to make a promise to my son David and to all of Illinois’ children. I will live to make you proud! I will approach my new term with an eye on the endless possibilities for our beautiful state, through the excited and hopeful eyes of my child and with the children of Illinois front and center in my thoughts and in my heart.
Illinois’ future is bright, and so is yours. I see you right there, Lucas. I’m talking to you, buddy, and all the other kids. I will do my part to leave you a state you can be proud of, with endless possibilities for your future.
It is my honor to serve you all. THANK YOU and may God bless you and keep you. Que Dios me los bendiga y me los cuide para siempre.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 9:35 am
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Put an end to right to work munger driving a wedge for rauner
Comment by Rabid Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 10:04 am
She does a great job, and her office of constituent services is exceptional.
Comment by Central Ill Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 10:20 am
Will never forget she “saved” a whole lot of human service providers during the Rauner years.
She literally keep some of them from closing their doors by doing everything in her power to get them enough funds to meet payrolls and pay their bills.
Comment by Give Me A Break Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 10:23 am
The Democratic Party’s top vote-getter earns that award by hustling Into forgotten corners of the state. Congrats and keep up the good work Ms. Comptroller.
Comment by This Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 10:35 am
“Running government like a business” is one of the most tired and wrong things ever. Enron was a business. Government exists to do the needed things that business cannot or will not do. People that don’t get that, don’t belong in government.
Comment by Give Us Barabbas Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 11:08 am
==“Running government like a business” is one of the most tired and wrong things ever. Enron was a business. Government exists to do the needed things that business cannot or will not do. People that don’t get that, don’t belong in government.==
I agree, count me in as sick and tired of all the business analogies in government, even if you say “better than a business.” Get business out of government entirely.
Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 11:10 am
== Running government like a business … ==
While I understand the sentiment / intent behind such a statement, it just isn’t doable. Businesses and government have (or should have) different objectives and goals.
Businesses have the goal of making money while providing a good or service. And hopefully in such a manner that they receive repeat business from the customer. You can do cost control, quality control, and other metrics, including profit and repeat customers, to measure such activity.
Government exists to provide services to a collective (citizens / voters) that individuals can’t provide for themselves. That makes the profit motive (saving money) much fuzzier, since better service often requires more money, not less. And, in some cases, you really don’t want repeat business. Who wants to be arresting the same people and putting them in jail a the time? Or treating the same people in mental health institutions when the goal is the help them lead productive lives? Same can be said about the welfare system; again, the end goal is help help people achieve independence (usually defined as enough economic success to support themselves) while pricing a minimum level of food, housing, health care, etc. Those kinds of things are a bit harder to measure. About the only efficiency measurement useful in government is if you are delivering the same service for less cost, or better service for the same cost.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 11:40 am
It is stunning to compare the number of times Mendoza said “I” in her speech with the number of times Frerichs said “we.”
The content of the speech was fine, but the tone seems off.
Comment by Math Counts Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 12:06 pm
- When someone tells you that it’s not worth your time to drive six hours for an event where only 10 people make it, don’t listen to them. You SHOW UP anyway. Those 10 people matter -
It’s refreshing to hear that, and something I recall wordslinger always advising statewide officials to do more of. Travel the state, meet with people everywhere, don’t listen to lazy, arrogant staffers.
Comment by Excitable Boy Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 12:07 pm
Agree that Mendoza has been doing a great job. Glad to have her continuing.
Also- thumbs up for bashing “running government as a business”. That dumb slogan has been around too long and means nothing useful.
Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 12:26 pm
No shoutout to her old friend Aaron Schock? Wherever he’s at now?
Comment by Stuck in Celliniland Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 12:34 pm
=Stuck in Celliniland=
More like stuck in 2012.
Comment by JS Mill Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 1:30 pm
Generally, Government will never run better than business. Case in point: when Blago’s administration tried to unionize nearly 100% of government, I spent countless hours documenting certain positions that should not be in the union. When I presented my case to the governor’s office I was told that I wasted my time-decision were already made. Politics in government outweighs good decision making.
Comment by Niceguy Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 1:52 pm
- Generally, Government will never run better than business. -
The State’s current payment cycle is far, far faster than any of the multi billion dollar customers my company does work for. And if you think decisions aren’t based on politics in private business, that just tells me you’ve never worked in the private sector.
Comment by Excitable Boy Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 3:38 pm
“Generally, Government will never run better than business.” In part that’s because part of Government’s job is to do things that are “unprofitable.”
Comment by Skeptic Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 3:59 pm
Rich, think my comment got trapped.
Comment by RNUG Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 4:03 pm
Whenever I hear someone say they want the government to run like a business I ask them how long they waited the last time they needed to wait on hold with their telecommunications company, insurance company…
Comment by Proud Papa Bear Thursday, Jan 12, 23 @ 9:18 pm
Excitable Boy - I think you’d be surprised how often staffers are urging their principals to get out into the state.
Comment by Soccermom Friday, Jan 13, 23 @ 1:45 pm