Will County Gazette

Rick Laib said Illinois’ record-setting job losses in 2020 were sadly a long time coming.

“With respect to job losses in Illinois, I do not attribute all of the losses to the impact of COVID-19,” Laib told the Will County Gazette. “Many businesses permanently closed their doors due to forced shutdowns, but a path for job loss has long been created in Illinois.”

In total, Illinois Policy Institute reported the state lost at least 423,000 jobs or nearly 7% of its workforce last year, with the losses coming in every metropolitan area. In Chicago, where unemployment numbers piled up the swiftest of all, rates more than tripled over a yearlong period ending in December 2020 to 8.7%

Laib said the decay cuts much deeper.

“This has been happening in this state for some time,” he said. “COVID-19 only exacerbated the difficulty in operations.”

Laib, who lost his bid for the 11th Congressional District in November, said he worries all the potential solutions proposed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker only stand to make a bad situation worse.

“A tax hike is not the answer,” he said. “It was not the answer before; it will not be the answer now. Taking more money from the people who remain in the state will not solve any of our financial problems. While there may be some temporary payment of bills, a tax hike will not put us now, nor has it ever put anyone back on the road to financial prosperity.”

In the end, Laib said it is about the state getting its finances and debt load back under control.

“The Illinois legislature can do this quite naturally by prioritizing the lowering of taxes and reducing regulations,” he said. “We are in competition with other states--we must compete to bring businesses, and thereby jobs, back to the state of Illinois.”