South West Illinois News

State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) recently asked constituents on social media if they were encountering issues with state office staffing levels.

“Are any of you experiencing difficulties reaching state offices due to people not returning to work since the COVID shutdowns? I’m aware that some state offices are STILL having their staff report only 2-3 days per week. What are your thoughts on this? I want offices fully open for business!,” she wrote on June 7 Facebook post.

In a June 9 Facebook post, Bryant shared a link to a petition to return state offices to normalcy.

"I have heard your overwhelming desire for our state offices to return to normalcy," Bryant wrote. "Please help me make your voices heard by signing the following petition that calls upon ALL state offices to fully return to pre-COVID office staffing rules and hours." The petition is available  at senatorbryant.com/return-to-normalcy.

In recent weeks, Bryant has spoken out about the “irresponsible” budget that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, a $50.4 billion document. In a news release posted to her website, she said: “After spending days touring the state, the Governor is signing his partisan and ‘balanced’ budget that will spend over $50.6 billion. The reality is that this so-called balanced budget only has a self-admitted ‘surplus’ of $100 million and doesn’t truly account for all of the spending that we know will take place throughout the upcoming fiscal year. This budget doesn’t account for over half of a billion dollars that was projected to be spent on the state’s misguided undocumented immigrant healthcare program or hundreds of millions on the state’s expected new AFSCME contract.”

Bryant's biggest critique concerns a budget item that includes funding for healthcare for undocumented migrants, which other Republican legislators are also concerned about.

“This budget once again proves that Democratic lawmakers have backwards priorities that don’t put Illinoisans first," Bryant said in a weekly wrap-up posted May 30. "It’s concerning that they chose to continue to underfund the struggling developmentally disabled community while putting hundreds of millions of dollars toward non-citizens through the state’s undocumented immigrant healthcare program and immigrant welcoming centers.”

On June 20, KHQA reported that Pritzker had ended the program that provided healthcare to undocumented migrants. The outlet reported: “In 2020, Illinois began offering state-funded health care to undocumented immigrants 65 years old or older. The program was expanded to cover 55-year-olds to 64-year-old in April of 2022 and 42-year-olds to 54-year-old in July of 2022. Pritzker told lawmakers that the change going into effect on July 1 is a temporary freeze to save costs.”

It included a statement from the governor, which read: "In the middle of a global pandemic, Illinois was the first state in the nation to implement a program that provides healthcare for undocumented people. We are continuing that investment with more than $500 million going towards a program that will continue providing healthcare for more than 63,000 people and we are doing so in a manner that allows us to maintain the state’s financial stability."