Chambana Sun

State Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) continues to lament how Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s one-size-fits-all way of handling the pandemic still hampers the state.

“The governor fails to realize some of the differences we have across the state,” Caulkins told the Chambana Sun. “There’s no flexibility whatsoever to the way he does things. We’re still being ruled based on what’s happening in Chicago and it’s created a tremendous amount of hardship for other areas of the state. It all goes back to the governor insisting on putting his own plan in place instead of one that was devised by thoughtful professionals.”

Caulkins points to a new Illinois Retail Merchants Association analysis that finds weeks after having moved into Phase 4 of the governor’s five-part Restore Illinois plan, the state's retail industry is still struggling.

“The retail sector has been hit extremely hard and continues to struggle,” he said. “I think part of the reason is because the governor has been so inflexible in the way he’s handcuffed so many businesses across the state.”

Caulkins isn’t surprised to hear that even now, Retail Merchants Association President Rob Karr said the group’s suggestions for jumpstarting the industry aren’t being listened to. Current guidelines still only allow restaurants and bars to operate at 50% capacity.

“It comes down to a lack of leadership,” Caulkins added. “That’s what made this worse than just a health crisis. There’s a lot going on that doesn’t make sense and its lead to people not wanting to follow any instruction because they’ve completely lost confidence in governor.”

Caulkins regrets knowing much of it didn’t have to happen, which only makes it harder to accept

“A lot of this could have been avoided,” he said. “Now, there’s growing concern the small business industry may never be the same with all the businesses that probably won’t ever reopen. It’s just unfair suffering for people, especially given this is a problem they did nothing to cause.”