State Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) recently appraised Gov. Bruce Rauner’s Feb. 15 budget address — remarking positively on approach as well as content — prior to reviewing other recent key events.
“Cautious optimism remains the ‘new normal’ at the Illinois State Capitol,” Fowler said in a press release published recently on his website. He went on to assess Rauner’s communication as appropriate on several levels, not only for accuracy and relevance, but also for its “subdued” tone.
Fowler said the governor’s speech focused on the right issues: cutting spending, exerting fiscal restraint and adopting productive economic policies to spur business in Illinois.
“Now is the time that we ‘right’ our fiscal ship and move Illinois forward,” Fowler said via his website. “We have to grow our economy to become more competitive. Southern Illinois will only become more attractive for job creators after we stabilize our state’s finances. After that, our state will become a more attractive destination for all to love and enjoy.”
In focusing on more localized matters, Fowler said he attended a legislative breakfast for Carbondale-based Southern Illinois Healthcare; and conducted numerous meetings with constituents.
Reacting to one of the more recent news items affecting residents in his district, Fowler commented on a recent action taken by a St. Clair County court. On Feb. 16 a Circuit Court judge rejected a motion by state Attorney General Lisa Madigan that would have halted paychecks for state employees.
Madigan's office had filed the request in late January in St. Clair County Circuit Court, according to the Chicago Tribune, in an attempt to nullify a previous decision made in July2015 by St. Clair County Circuit Judge Robert LeChien, who ruled that the state must pay workers in full even though no budget agreement was in place.
The Chicago Tribune said last month that Madigan’s strategy was intended to pressure the state into finalizing a budget and criticized the action as a grab for power among Democrats. Repercussions officially extended to the Illinois Republican Party, whose spokesman, Steven Yaffe, came out with a harsh rebuke of the attorney general’s scheme.
"Only a Madigan would try to disrupt bipartisan momentum in a matter that threatens to cripple government services and hurt state workers and their families," Yaffe stated, according to the Chicago Tribune. The St. Clair court ruling in January resulted from an original movement created by 13 different unions to which state workers belong.
As a result of the ruling, thousands of Fowler’s constituents working for the state, and who otherwise would have faced serious financial concerns, can breathe easier as the midmonth decision guarantees they will continue to receive their salaries.
Fowler said on his website that he applauds the ruling of the judge and he is glad to know that his constituents will continue to be paid for their hard work.
The judge in the case conveyed the desire to avoid seeing the state government shut down, according to Capitol Fax. “The balance of equities in the case favored continuing to pay state employees,” Capitol Fax said of the judge’s decision.
Fowler and other state-level lawmakers were scheduled to be in their home districts for “in-district work” with plans to reconvene in Springfield on Feb. 28.
Elected in 2016 to represent the 59th District in the state Senate, Fowler, a businessman and the former mayor of Harrisburg, ran on a platform advocating term limits, protections for law enforcement personnel, fair legislative mapping, education and job creation in Illinois. He unseated his Democratic opponent, incumbent Gary Forby, by over 10 percentage points.
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