State Sen. Jim Oberweis, R-Sugar Grove, issued a statement about Gov. Pat Quinn’s “State of the State” speech, presented to a joint session of Illinois lawmakers Feb. 6 in the chambers of the House of Representatives:
“I was very pleased that the governor took time to talk about the very, very serious financial situation that our state is facing. Unfortunately, his speech did nothing to improve the ‘business unfriendly’ status of Illinois. His support of Senate Bill 1, the public pension reform bill, doesn’t go nearly far enough. Senate Bill 1 only solves a small part of our problem – if that is all we do, we’ll be back here facing the problem again in another year or two. We ought to do the right things now to fix this problem on a long-term basis.
“In addition, all new employees should have a defined-contribution plan instead of a defined-benefit plan so that this problem does not recur. I don’t believe that Senate Bill 1 will solve our problems, but at least it is a step in the right direction. I am delighted that the governor was willing to at least call attention to the serious problem that we have.”
