Former Gov. Edgar reflects on Illinois fiscal trouble Gov. Pritzker faces

Posted on November 16, 2020
Former Gov. Jim Edgar, announcing a new statesmanship award to be given by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, says statesmen solve problems, even when it makes people mad. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – If there’s one person who has even a little idea of the fiscal trouble Gov. JB Pritzker is dealing with, it’s predecessor Jim Edgar. And Edgar did not have a pandemic. Still, he thought he had it tough. 

“Today it’s in far worse shape than anything I had to deal with back in the nineties, and it’s going to take a long time to dig out of this hole. Particularly after the tax amendment got defeated, that made the hole even bigger. “It also did not create an environment that is going to make it easy to come up with new tax increases in the near future.”

Edgar was on a Zoom call with SIU’s Paul Simon Institute to introduce a new statesmanship prize. Edgar said statesmanship is about doing the right thing, even when it angers people. An example, he said, was when Republican lawmakers broke ranks with their party – and then-Gov. Bruce Rauner – to finally pass a budget.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]. 

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