* From today’s press conference following Gov. Pritzker’s announcement…
Reporter: But from your speech, too, it also sounded like protecting legacy…
Pritzker: Well, sure, balancing the budget every year, that’s something we want to keep doing. Making sure that we’re moving our fiscal situation in the right direction, protecting people’s individual rights, like reproductive rights, LGBT rights. Those are all things that are part of a legacy that I think that we need to protect.
* He also talked about the country at large a lot. From his speech…
Our nation sits on the precipice of an economy that will be reshaped over the next few years by the innovations of artificial intelligence. And while there will be many ways in which AI makes us better and healthier and more efficient as a society – it will also require us to reform education to meet the future of work.
In that context we must create an American economy whose sole purpose is not to make a small amount of very rich people richer but rather one that provides good, stable middle class jobs that pay enough to afford to buy a house, raise a family, and live a fulfilling life.
We must reckon with the fact that everything is too damned expensive. From groceries to concert tickets to mortgages to cars to healthcare, we have created a world where one job isn’t enough to raise kids, one salary not enough to own a home and one lifetime of work not enough to earn retirement. And the answer does not lie in tariffs that tax workers, budgets that gut Medicaid, and DOGE bros that strip research funding from our universities.
Instead, the answer starts with growing Illinois’ economy – with relentlessly pursuing the industries and jobs of the future. We must continue the work started by my administration to attract and grow businesses.
That takes continual investment in
* world class airports and railroads
* peerless institutions of higher learning
* protected fresh water
* abundant clean energy
* well designed urban landscapes
* and nutrient rich rural farmland.But nothing is more important to grow our economy than the quality of our people, and we must protect that because we have a workforce that is second to none.
* Isabel asked what his big new ideas are…
Isabel: Your original campaign slogan was ‘Think Big.’ What are your big ideas for the remainder of this term and your third term?
Pritzker: Well, there are an awful lot of things we’ve got to still accomplish, right? We still need to get to universal preschool. We’re on our way. It’ll happen probably in 2027, but importantly, we have unfinished business, so we’ve got to keep moving forward. That’s one example. We’ve got to keep moving toward credit upgrades in our state, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re continuing to fund K-12 education. I want to say one important thing that gets overlooked often. When I took office, Illinois, eighth graders were 15th in the country in reading scores. We’re now second in the country. I want to be number one. We were 22nd in the country eighth grade math scores when I took office. We’re now number four in the country. I want to be number one. So again, the big things we’ve got to accomplish are, on behalf of the people of Illinois, the direction that we’re taking and keeping you along
Discuss.
