Will County Gazette

Illinois state Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena) is among a group of GOP lawmakers pushing for the General Assembly to reconvene and assess Gov. J.B. Pritzker's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our government has three parts to it, but right now we have a governor running everything on his own with input he says he’s getting from scientists that no one elected,” McDermed told the Will County Gazette. “Someone has to be the voice of the people of this state.”

McDermed says she was pleased to see the governor take some Republican suggestions to heart in laying out the guidelines for the new stay-at-home order he just extended to the end of May, such as allowing state parks to reopen, hospitals to perform elected surgeries and more businesses to reopen. But she argues that Pritzker didn’t go nearly far enough to increase the chances of more small businesses being able to survive over the long haul.

“I’m glad he listened to some of the proposals put forth by the Republican caucus, but we can’t have a unilateral ruling body and a one-size-only approach for the whole state,” McDermed said. “We need to have a much more regionalized way of doing things.”

McDermed says she thinks she knows why Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) hasn’t been publicly heard on the issue of lawmakers reconvening in Springfield.

“He’s too busy thinking about the next election, doing everything he can to try make sure he stays in power,” she said.

As for Pritzker, McDermed adds that she’s perplexed as to why he would still being pushing his progressive tax idea at a time when the state is in such a precarious position with its finances.

“I think he thinks all the chaos might make it easier for this thing to slip through,” McDermed said. “Why else would anyone think of trying to raise taxes in the middle of a crisis like this?”