Metro East Sun

Former Illinois House Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Edwardsville) worries that Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic may soon lead the state to a place of no return.

“I worry about the state reaching the point of no return for many of our small businesses,” Kay told the Metro East Sun. “Unlike the state, these small businesses don’t have all this funny money to play with and the longer this economy is sidelined, the harder it will be for them to truly rebound.”

Kay argues that the governor's move to extend the stay-at-home order that caused countless small businesses to close last month will spell more hard times.

“I guess my feeling is we could have opened things up on a gradual basis or tiered level and saved a lot of small businesses to fight another day,” Kay said. “I’m from Southern Illinois and I can’t begin to understand why we haven’t been allowed to open back up on some level. All the data says that could happen now without too much trouble as long as we’re following the guidelines the president has put out.”

Kay says that with all that’s going on he can’t believe that Pritzker would still be pushing the progressive tax he’s supported since his days as a candidate that will mean higher taxes for at least some state residents.

“I think it’s a very ill-conceived plan and I’ve felt that way since it was introduced,” Kay said. “I don’t know what his strategy is but considering businesses are down and revenues across the state are down, it would seem imposing another tax would be the last thing you would want to do. It’s going to hurt everyone. It was a bad idea without the coronavirus and now it’s an even worse one.”