Rep. Mike Marron | File photo
Rep. Mike Marron | File photo
No matter where he goes or with whom he converses, state Rep. Mike Marron (R-Danville) says he hears the same complaints about government.
“Every day, I talk to a lot of people,” Marron said in a video posted to YouTube. “I talk to my constituents; people who visit me in the office, people at public events, people that call me on the phone and an overwhelming large portion of the people I talk to are mad as hell,” he said. “They’ve lost faith in this body; they’ve lost faith in you, faith in me. They don’t believe in the system anymore.”
Marron argues the lack of transparency and input from residents in the crafting of the state’s new $42 billion state budget is the latest level of abuse heaped on voters.
“I think if we evaluate where we’re at, we need to take a long look in the mirror about how we conduct business,” Marron said. “This budget process is ridiculous. I was a county board chairman for four years. There is no government entity in this nation that conducts business like this. We had to put our budget on display for 30 days. If you’re on the city council you have to put the budget on display for two week so the public, the media and the other party can vet it. It’s a pretty good process. You meet the needs of your constituents doing it that way.”
Marron said he is now working on a bill that he is hoping will have the same effect in Springfield.
“It will require the General Assembly to put the proposed state budget on display for 30 days prior to passage,” he said. “For my three-year tenure here, I’ve been calling out the ridiculous process that plays out every year. Every year, the process is the same; the budget is crafted behind closed doors by the governor and the legislative leaders while appropriation committees meet mainly for show and have no influence on final product.”
As it is, Marron said it's little wonder so many have lost faith in the system.
“We face a crisis of confidence tearing at the fabric of our democracy and we need to ask ourselves what role we played in this,” he said.
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