Prairie State Wire

Peter Breen fumes Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s mixed message in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is proving to have a crippling impact on local small business owners.

“It’s clear that his goal of flattening the curve has changed even though he refuses to say so,” Breen told the DuPage Policy Journal. “Small businesses are absolutely reeling now and there is a palatable fear that keeping a heavy shutdown in place through the month of May could bankrupt a substantial number of those operations.”

Now running against incumbent state Rep. Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) in the 48th District, Breen (R-Lombard) laments nothing seems to matter to Pritzker as much as the idea of him doing things his own way. The governor recently announced the statewide stay-at-home order he first enacted in late March is being extended over the next four weeks.

“People were understanding over the first month or so, but at this point the curve has been flattened but the governor still doesn’t have any sort of plan to reopen in a responsible and cautious way,” he said.

Breen says he finds it just as mind-boggling that the governor is now talking about not reopening schools in the fall.

“How can you justified projecting something like that this far out,” he said. “We’re looking at students being a year behind where they should be if we don’t open those schools on time.”

Finally, Breen said he can’t fathom how Pritzker could still be pushing is progressive tax idea at such a chaotic time for the state.

“At this point, anyone who cares about the future of small business in the state of Illinois has to reject the graduated tax idea,” he said. “The very idea of adding another anti-business measure makes about as little sense as the idea of handing this governor and this General Assembly a blank check to raise taxes anytime they choose to.”