Kane County Reporter

Former Illinois State Senator candidate Ben Bierly (R-St.Cloud) wonders what it will take for Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) to put the people of Illinois first in an ongoing battle to overcome the COVID-19 crisis.

“He hasn’t done anything to address the pandemic, like calling the legislature back into session,” Bierly told the Kane County Reporter. “There’s no indication he ever stops to think about the impact his actions are having on people. Instead, he just allows [Illinois House Speaker] Mike Madigan (D-Chicago) to call all the shots as they both put their own agenda ahead of that of the people.”

Bierly says the proof is in the numbers, pointing to a new TrackTheRecovery.org analysis that finds since the beginning of the year, Illinois has lost more than a third of all its small businesses.

One in three small businesses have closed in the state of Illinois due to the COVID-19 pandemic | Adobe Stock

Overall the data compiled by Harvard and Brown universities, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, shows as of Nov. 16 the number of small businesses open dipped by some 35.4%. This is in comparison to Jan. 2020, with the industry also experiencing a revenue decline topping 39% since January.

“All of it is really depressing news,” said Bierly, who netted 36% of the vote in his state senate run against Rep. John Connor (D-Lockport) in the 43rd District. “And when you think about it, things are probably even worse when you factor in all the people that will be left out of work by these closures. Something hasn’t changed, but the governor shows no signs of adjusting his philosophy.”

National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Illinois State Director, Mark Grant, states that running a small business in Illinois was already quite the challenge even before the pandemic hit, given such factors as higher property taxes and workers’ compensation.

“Instead of looking for solutions, all you see from the governor’s office is blame, blame, blame,” Bierly said. “Blame doesn’t help small business owners struggling to hold on. The governor needs to understand that small business owners don’t have same power flexibility to adjust and hang on. With everything the governor has done, it will be a long, long time before Illinois and our small business industry fully recovers.”