•April 26, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

The state many of us hold dear is being wrecked by elected officials of both parties. I say, let’s sweep them all off the table and bring popular, effective former governor Jim Edgar out of retirement.

Gov. Bruce Rauner is into his third year without ever having proposed a credible balanced budget, with nothing on the horizon.

Rauner has also talked about the need for a big infrastructure program as well as education finance reforms, both badly needed. Yet he has never proposed anything for either. Budget, infrastructure, education—that’s pretty much what state government is all about.

And the collateral wreckage is incalculable. Higher education is imploding, non-profit social service agencies are undergoing a die-off, business investment is tanking because of fiscal instability and uncertainty, and people across Illinois are in a deep funk about their state, which probably encourages flight.

It is surprising that after a successful career doing deals in the private sector, Rauner is an abysmal failure at deal-making in Springfield.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.