South Central Reporter

Former Madison County board member Don Moore looks at Illinois’ sagging economy and is more convinced state governments owe residents more during these times.

“Our government should take responsibility for their mandates and should make decisions that promote business, promote their economies and improve the quality of life of their constituents,” Moore told the South Central Reporter as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s shutdown restrictions take greater hold. “Cut checks to these businesses each month until the government mandated shutdown is rescinded.”

Moore reasons he sees little other way if Illinois is to have any chance of remaining Illinois once the pandemic has finally subsided.

“Just look around you and see what’s happening,” he said, pointing to a new survey by small business referral network Alignable finds that 56% of all the state’s bar and restaurant owners across the state were unable to pay their full rent during December as the sting of the governor’s ongoing ban on indoor dining took greater effect.

Nationally, that figure stands at 61%, up 19% from just a month earlier with the harshest part of the winter season still yet to come. In Illinois, the number of restaurants now unable to make full rent payments has already more than doubled since September.

Moore said he worries things may get worse before they get better if lawmakers in Springfield don’t quickly make the changes he thinks are desperately needed.

“With hospitals ability to handle lifesaving care being sidelined with percent of deaths and now percent of infections being the new defining factor to manage the spread of COVID 19, Illinois continues to move the goalpost,” he said. “In the meanwhile, state mandates are squeezing the life out of small business, which so happens to be the largest contributor to our national economy.”