Springfield… “It’s disappointing that the Governor’s State of the State address was focused much more on the past than on plans for the future,” State Representative Kay Hatcher said today. Hatcher (R-Yorkville) said the address to a joint session of the General Assembly was long on what the governor considered past accomplishments, but short on details of his plans to solve our worsening financial crisis.

“The Governor devoted much of his address today to what he considers his accomplishments from the past year, and in good economic times, that might be just fine. But in my opinion, when you have an $11 billion deficit and $6 billion in unpaid bills, that is the state of the state, and that’s what we need to be focusing on,” Hatcher said.

Representative Hatcher noted that Governor Quinn did touch briefly on the need to work to create jobs. “While he offered no details, I was glad to hear the governor wants to focus on jobs. As a member of the bi-partisan job creation task force, that will be one of my primary goals this year,” Hatcher said.

She added, though, that Quinn also hinted that he will continue to push for tax increases. “On this issue, the governor and I strongly disagree. Families and businesses are struggling to hang on in these desperate economic times. Raising their taxes is the absolute worst thing we could do.”