Swanson reacts to Governor Pritzker’s inauguration

dan-swanson-e1549023235489-17

73rd District Representative Dan Swanson was in the audience for Governor J.B. Pritzker’s inauguration yesterday.

Pritzker took the oath of office Monday to become the 43rd Governor of Illinois and the first Democrat since Pat Quinn.

Although the Alpha Republican may not see eye-to-eye with the Democratic governor, he does say he agrees with Pritzker’s push for better infrastructure and education.

One thing he is not onboard with is unfunded mandates that are pushed on school districts and townships.

“That’s where we increase our burden on schools, with our townships, with our counties.  That’s where we have to be careful at our local level, that we don’t keep pushing unfunded mandates. ”

He praised outgoing Governor Bruce Rauner for adding funding to education in his term, but he says there’s still more that needs to be done.

One thing that he warns caution on is increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He calls the move a double-edged sword.

“We’d all like to see a $15 wage but what’s that small business going to do that can’t afford that. [They] may have ten employees hired at $12.50 or $$14 an hour but you bump it up to $15 an hour, how are they going to be able to make ends meet? How many people may lose their jobs when we raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour? ”

He tells WGIL that he thinks that once small businesses are freed up to expand, that’ll push up minimum wages.

ReCENT POSTS

Loading...