Metro East Sun

Republican state Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Shelbyville) fumes Gov. J.B. Pritzker continues to focus on the wrong things for the good of the state.

“This administration can’t protect our most vulnerable citizens, they can’t produce thoughtful and commonsensical policies that don’t crush small businesses, they can’t get Illinois Department of Public Health to investigate a COVID outbreak at a veteran’s home, they can’t get desperate families their unemployment benefits for months…but they can throw massive resources into an effort to expunge criminal records four years ahead of schedule,” Plummer said.

In all, the state has expunged roughly 500,000 500,000 arrest records related to cannabis, including nearly 10,000 pardons through the Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA), which is the law that legalized the production, sale, and use of cannabis across the state.

While Pritzker touted the moment as a chance for new beginnings for many, Plummer lamenting the timing of it all couldn’t be worse and is far too typical of the way the governor has legislated.

“He’s always putting petty politics over proper policy,” he said. “I can’t think of a better way to show the misplaced priorities of this administration during a time crisis.”

Plummer likewise has been one of Springfield’s most vocal critics of the governor’s handling of the COVID crisis, blasting many of the shutdown restrictions he has unilaterally enacted as an abuse of power.

“There are a tremendous number of sheriffs, police chiefs and states’ attorneys that say the government is misinterpreting some of its power and they intend to follow the law and not the governor in trying to best serve the people of this state,” Plummer told the Metro East Sun. “For a lot of business owners, nobody wants to be a bad guy in rejecting the governor. But for so many, this is simply a matter of survival.”