46th District State Senate Candidates: Creating a Better Business Environment in IIllinois
By: Blake Long
Updated: October 23, 2012
In the race for the 46th district state
senate seat, Republican Pat Sullivan is facing Democrat incumbent Dave Koehler. In recent years we've seen businesses leave the state and some large employers, like Caterpillar, be very critical of the state's business climate. We're asking the candidates what the state should do to create a better business environment to attract more jobs?
Pat Sullivan:
"Isn't evident, I mean us businesses are trying to work with the government. We're saying if we give you money, we can't expand. The small businesses hire over 70% of the workers in this state, us small businesses can't expand. The workers want to work, they're telling me. We're throwing mountains of red tape in front of 'em and saying well we can't have jobs because of this n that. Give us a shovel, we'll move that mountain. "
Dave Koehler:
"We have to make sure that our budget is balanced, that we are getting out of debt, that we have controlled our pension plans that made a disabled system. We have done a tremendous amount of reform already. We've been involved in workers' comp reform, medicaid reform, we had education reform, we've had pay to play reform in terms of state contracts to private vendors. So, we've had a lot of reform issues that we've worked on, we need to continue that and ensure that this state is, continues to go in the right direction. "
Pat Sullivan:
"Isn't evident, I mean us businesses are trying to work with the government. We're saying if we give you money, we can't expand. The small businesses hire over 70% of the workers in this state, us small businesses can't expand. The workers want to work, they're telling me. We're throwing mountains of red tape in front of 'em and saying well we can't have jobs because of this n that. Give us a shovel, we'll move that mountain. "
Dave Koehler:
"We have to make sure that our budget is balanced, that we are getting out of debt, that we have controlled our pension plans that made a disabled system. We have done a tremendous amount of reform already. We've been involved in workers' comp reform, medicaid reform, we had education reform, we've had pay to play reform in terms of state contracts to private vendors. So, we've had a lot of reform issues that we've worked on, we need to continue that and ensure that this state is, continues to go in the right direction. "
