South Central Reporter

State Rep. Blaine Wilhour (R-Beecher City) is devising a plan to present to Gov. J.B. Pritzker that he hopes will begin to move the state back to normalcy.

“We’re putting together a plan from a team of elected officials, business people and other leaders to start reopening our economy and moving toward allowing people back to work,” Wilhour told the South Central Reporter. “We’ll present to the governor, but I’ve already told him people are not going to continue to comply with all these restrictions without more transparency about why he’s continuing to do the things he’s doing.”

In Wilhour’s mind, the burden of proof in terms of justifying the statewide stay-at-home order Pritzker just extended through the end of May lies with the government. Wilhour said he wonders if Pritzker even has the legal authority to do what he’s doing.

“I’ve said from the beginning I don’t think he has the constitutional power to be putting restrictions like this in place,” he said. "When you’re taking these kinds of draconian measures that impact personal liberties, you have to be transparent. The governor hasn’t done that. We’re an equal branch of government and we have the right to be able to analyze these things.”

Wilhour said everything he sees and hears in his 107th District tells him things are stable enough for at least parts of it to be restarted for business.

“The research I’ve done and from what I see in my district this lockdown stuff doesn’t work,” he said. “We’re limiting people’s ability to take care of their families while were letting these big-box stores to still operate as usual. We get the need for social distancing but we have a regionalized plan that puts people back to work.”