Pritzker: State once Lincoln’s home faces challenges

Posted on February 12, 2019
Illinois’ new governor has marked off another first, his first commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. (Dave Dahl/WJBC)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – The state budget speech next week was not far from Gov. JB Pritzker’s mind when he spoke at Tuesday’s American Legion commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday at the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield’s Oak Ridge Cemetery.

“It’s no secret that our state, which Abraham Lincoln once called home, faces some real challenges right now,” said Pritzker. “We face a fiscal situation fed by years of mismanagement which will take years to overcome. Too many of our communities are being left behind. Children in certain zip codes are being shut out of opportunity before they even have a chance.”

Pritzker, who lauded the Legion’s current 85-year run of putting on the birthday ceremonies, said he is trying to live up to the Lincoln legacy.

But, with reporters after he left the event, he shed little to no new light on the budget speech, which he will deliver Wednesday of next week.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]

 

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