Will County Gazette

State House Floor Leader Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) believes Gov. J.B. Pritzker owes voters more transparency in his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These decisions are impacting so many people, and not in a good way, that I think we’re all entitled to more information about what he’s basing them on,” Batinick told the Will County Gazette. “And, like I’ve always said, we should be back in Springfield having these discussions.”

Batinick argues the stakes are much too high to allow just one man to make all the critical decisions, as is the case in the governor now moving to reenact shutdown restrictions in at least 24 counties as coronavirus infection rates have ticked up.

“For so many in our business community, this is about survival and maintaining their livelihood,” he added. “You talk to small business owners all around and they’ll tell you they’re afraid if they have to shut down again the closure could be permanent.”

With a Facebook page dedicated to businesses planning to defy his order already created and launched, Pritzker is now threatening to send the Illinois State Police to the regions where restaurants and bars are deemed to be in violation.

At the end of the day, Batinick maintains the governor has to be much more forthcoming if he ever hopes to have more people buy into any of what he’s selling. He recently blasted the governor over his decision not to allow high school student-athletes to compete during the fall semester.

“Nobody knows what he can justify because we haven’t seen any of the data he used to make any of these decisions,” he said. “There just has to be more transparency.”