State Representative Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) joined his House Republican colleagues to urge Governor Pritzker to move Illinois forward to Phase 4 of his Restore Illinois plan. A letter was sent to Governor Pritzker on June 12th by Rep. Caulkins and his colleagues urging the Governor to move to Phase 4 immediately.
“Many businesses have remained closed since March or have struggled to remain open due to Governor Pritzker’s over-burdensome restrictions, it’s time to reopen Central Illinois now,” said Rep. Caulkins. “Central Illinois has the lowest COVID-19 positivity rate of any region in the state currently at 2%. Our communities have been successful at slowing the spread of the coronavirus and proven we can now safely reopen all businesses.”
According to the letter addressed to Governor Pritzker from Rep. Caulkins and his fellow House Republican colleagues, “There is no science behind allowing people in retail stores but not allowing them into a restaurant. One of our members recently visited a hospital and saw staff eating in the cafeteria, while socially distanced; thus indoor dining cannot be the problem. The last few weeks have seen protests across the state for a great cause, including the one you attended in Matteson amongst hundreds, if not thousands, of people. But yet, under your declared parameters, some businesses remain shuttered, others are too limited in their allowed capacity to fare well, they are suffering and some barely getting by, if they are even able to do so. Each day that we delay safely moving into the next phase, Phase 4, another business(es) closes, more jobs are lost and the mental, physical and overall well-being of the residents of our state will continue to worsen due to unemployment and loss of industry, not to mention near and long term loss of revenue to the State. We cannot continue to abide by flawed reasoning until the previously determined Phase 4 date of June 26th, which was set before we obtained the information we have today.”
Caulkins added, “We have all heard from business owners who are struggling to remain open and we have received hundreds of phone calls from constituents who have not received an unemployment check and they can’t even get answers from the administration. Illinois cannot continue this way any longer, it’s time to reopen Central Illinois today, not tomorrow, not next week – the time to reopen is now!”