Metro East Sun

A former Republican Illinois House candidate says instead of shuttering businesses due to COVID-19 Gov. J.B. Pritzker should allow entrepreneurs to make their own decisions. 

“People are very resourceful, especially an entrepreneur who takes risk, is intelligent and has fortitude to do something like open a business,” said Don Moore, current chairman of the finance committee for the Madison County board. “They come up with a lot better ideas then the government comes up with on how to control this virus, so let them make those decisions on how best to keep their employees and customers safe.” 

Moore made the comments in response to a Yelp study, which found the state of Illinois is among the top five states with the highest number of business closures. About 2,800 have permanently shuttered and 2,300 temporarily. Other states in the top five include California, Texas, New York and Florida. 

Madison County Board Member Don Moore, running in GOP Primary for Illinois State House | File photo

“In Madison County, we’ve been resisting the governor’s shutdown orders,” Moore told the Metro East Sun. “We passed a resolution saying that we encourage businesses to open if they feel it's safe to do so. I haven't seen that many businesses closing and there are businesses that are open, including bars and restaurants, in defiance of the governor's intention to close these businesses down.”

Yelp’s quarterly report further found that 5,100 Illinois-based businesses listed on the review-based website have either temporarily closed or will permanently shutter due to COVID-19 governmental shutdown orders.

About 4,400 were listed as Chicago-based businesses and Illinois Policy Institute data determined the state could potentially lose 94,200 service sector jobs permanently if a surge in coronavirus cases leads to renewed governmental closure orders.

“Madison County is a conservative, hardworking county with a lot of people who make a living by going to work every day, and they decided it’s probably in their best interest to keep their shops open and try to generate some revenue,” said Moore in an interview. “I had a very long, heated discussion with the mayor about this because he was only saying why businesses can’t stay open. I asked why he wasn’t talking to business owners about ways they can stay open.”

As of Aug. 12, 198,593 COVID-19 cases and 7,672 fatalities were reported overall in Illinois, according to the Illinois Department of Health.

“I don't believe we should shutter our economy because of this virus,” Moore said. “There are precautions to take, especially if you're more susceptible to a long illness then maybe you should stay home and wear a face mask wherever you go but that's on you. Not everybody should shut down.”