Prairie State Wire

Peter Breen doesn’t mince words about how he thinks the government is behind Illinois’ sputtering economy.

“The government is strangling Illinois independent restaurants and he can’t cite any good evidence for why he’s doing so or why he’s shutting down the establishments that he is,” Breen told the Prairie State Wire. “The governor needs to either let these restaurants do their business in the safe manner outlined by federal law or personally guarantee every salary, rent and utility payment for these restaurants he has shut down.”

Breen, a former Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives, finds it as no great surprise that a new survey by small business referral network Alignable finds that 56% of all the state’s bar and restaurant owners across the state were unable to pay their full rent this month as the sting of the governor’s ongoing ban on indoor dining took greater effect.

Nationally, that figure stands at 61%, up 19% from just a month earlier with the harshest part of the winter season still yet to come. In Illinois, the number of restaurants now unable to make full rent payments has already more than doubled since September.

Breen sees it all as going hand and hand with the state’s rising outmigration issues.

“People are seeing well-run states that care about their small business industry surviving and even thriving and they’re watching poorly runs states like Illinois collapse between the worse population losses since World War II and the crushing of independent restaurants,” he told Prairie State Wire. “The number one thing I worry about is the impact on the spirit of our restaurants. The only way to get that back is to strongly support our small businesses and take the steps necessary to draw people here instead of driving them away.”