Collins: Boxing in Chicago won't solve violence

SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Jacqueline Collins, D-Chicago, issued the following statement following the governor’s budget address today, in which he called for more State Police to patrol the highways surrounding the city of Chicago.

“Without a budget, the state loses $11 million a day. That cost is too high a price for our students and our seniors to pay,” Collins said. “In three years, we have yet to see a balanced budget from the Governor. The issues of term limits and worker’s compensation have nothing to do with proposing and presenting a budget.

“The State of Illinois is teetering on financial ruin and instability. It is the Governor’s duty under the Illinois Constitution to present a budget. The rhetoric espoused by the Governor today originated in an alternative universe peppered with alternative facts.

“Governor Rauner’s proposal does nothing to address the violence within Chicago, but simply seeks to wall it off from the outside. It’s a tone-deaf move that further distracts from the fact that the Senate continues to do his job for him. It is his duty under the Illinois Constitution to present a budget, not the Senate’s.”