Yesterday in the Capitol, Speaker Madigan was elected Speaker for a record 17th term. In the Senate, Senator Cullerton was elected President and Senator Radogno was elected the Senate Republican Leader. Representative Durkin remains the House Republican Leader so the same leadership remains in Springfield as the budget impasse continues.
Speaker Madigan did release a series of proposals aimed at economic growth for Illinois,. See commentary from Speaker Madigan below from the State Journal Register.
Tony
House Speaker Michael Madigan: Economic growth a better way to improve Illinois
The last two years have been extremely difficult for our state. But with the inauguration of a new General Assembly today, we have an opportunity for a new way forward. Regardless of how any of us feel about the proposals laid out by Gov. Bruce Rauner, the elected leaders of our state must face Illinois’ challenges together. Rather than placing blame and looking to find the worst in each other, we should focus on working together and finding common ground to address the issues facing our state.
In that spirit, I think we can all agree that legislators and the governor must take immediate action to address the state’s budget crisis. There are people across Illinois whose lives are forever altered in a negative way because of our lack of a budget. If we have a repeat of the last two years, there will be more people forever harmed across our state. We can all agree that can’t happen.
Tony Paulauski
Executive Director
The Arc of Illinois
20901 S. LaGrange Rd. Suite 209
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-464-1832 (OFFICE)
708-828-0188 (CELL)
Tony@thearcofil.org