Will County Gazette

Now running for governor, state Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia) is set to speak at the Families of Church Carnival in Channonhon on June 6.

“The carnival starts and after everything we’ve been through over the last couple years to have those words come out is exciting to me,” Head Pastor Randy Blan said in a video posted to YouTube. “I’ve also been very excited about blessing our community that so desperately needed to come together to have some fun and get back to normal.”

Blan added he is hopeful about Bailey being just what the state needs.

“A lot of people don’t believe church and politics are supposed to meet, but I don’t agree with that,” he said. “We’re supposed to be the ones setting the course, influencing the culture. Most churches just kind of shy away from that. We need a vision ... and Darren Bailey is a man who not only confesses faith in Jesus Christ, but he walks in that faith."

Bailey has established his campaign platform on fiscal responsibility, especially toward its pension system.

“We’ve been trying for two years to talk about the pension problem here in Illinois, and no one wants to talk about it,” he said in another recent video posted to Facebook. “So now you take a step, just simply propose an amendment to deal with the pension system in Illinois. You have to go through a process.”

Along the way, Bailey is warning that the business-as-usual approach will no longer do.

“Right now, no one in Springfield is talking about any solution,” he added. “They’re just covering their eyes and either waiting for the system to crash or hoping for something miraculous to happen.”

He cited Moody’s Investor Service’s study that said “the state and local pension system in Illinois is in danger with an unfunded liability of $400 billion,” which comes to every Illinoisan household owing $80,000.

As part of his solution, Bailey recently filed a bill that would allow the General Assembly to make changes to the state’s pension system.