Illinois’ gubernatorial election is still over a year away, and yet the Democratic field is filling up ahead of their primary.
One of the most recognizable names is venture capitalist Jay Robert “J.B.” Pritzker who threw in his name into the primary race back in April.
Pritzker told WGIL that looking historically at the job market in Illinois, small business is the major economic driver with two-thirds of jobs come from that sector, and he says he knows how to help those businesses. “I’ve been doing that for much of my career,” says Pritzker, “and founded a non-profit small business incubator that’s been named the best business incubator in North America. It has created more than 6,000 jobs and brought more than $100M in capitol into support of those businesses.”
When asked about the budget impasse, Pritzker called it “disturbing” that Governor Bruce Rauner “hasn’t shown up”
He also says that what he’s heard on the campaign trail is that education is the most important thing on people’s minds, something that local superintendents have been saying for a long time.
“The fact we don’t have a budget, the fact we don’t know whether schools are gonna open in the fall. The fact the Governor hasn’t said what he’ll do about SB-1, the school funding formula bill… means everything is up in the air.” says Pritzker, “Until he finally says he will sign SB-1, I think we’ve got real problems in our education system.
He added that Democrats and Republicans need to work together on the process to get a budget passed, and that both sides need to bend to get one done.
