“Governor Quinn’s speech was a slap in the face to the people of Illinois. Our state needs leadership from our Governor, not a re-election speech. It was disrespectful of the Governor to tout his success at closing numerous state facilities. The decisions made by our Governor have left him with blood on his hands. Quinn’s failure to recognize his actions have resulted in higher prison population and under staffing of our prisons which has resulted in the attack of four prison guards and a death of an inmate. His lack of leadership is failing our state.

The Governor continued to avoid coming up with solutions to fix our state. Quinn discussed the need for an assault weapons ban, yet he doesn’t know what an assault weapon is. Last year, the legislature enacted Medicaid reforms estimated to save our state $2.6 billion, yet our Governor failed to implement these cost-savings. Furthermore, the Governor failed to mention his support to work with the legislature in developing a sensible plan for regulating and developing environmental protections to allow the occurrence for fracking. The fracking industry will bring more jobs and revenue to our state.

Our state is in a fiscal crisis, I am disappointed our Governor did not propose a plan to reduce our state debt, phase out the 67% income tax hike and propose a plan for job growth.”