East Central Reporter

Downstate republican state Rep. Chris Miller is warning small business owners it’s either stand up to Gov. J.B. Pritzker or face the dire consequences his COVID restrictions have often led to.

“The net result of his incompetent leadership and lack of concern for small business owners shows itself more each day,” Miller told the East Central Reporter. “What the governor has done has almost made it impossible for small business owners to run their operations. He’s destroying a whole industry.”

Miller reasons the proof is in the numbers, pointing to a new survey by small business referral network Alignable finds that during the month of December 56% of all the state’s bar and restaurant owners were unable to pay their full rent as the sting of the governor’s ongoing ban on indoor dining took greater effect.

Nationally, that figure stands at 61%, up 19% from just a month earlier with the harshest part of the winter season still yet to come. In Illinois, the number of restaurants now unable to make full rent payments has already more than doubled since September.

“People down here are doing a little better because we’re not listening to an out-of-touch billionaire that doesn’t care if anyone else survives,” Miller added. “People have common sense about what needs to be done to protect themselves. In the case of the governor, I think he just doesn’t understand the pains of opening a business, the struggles of growing a business. He’s never had to be concerned with making payroll or signing a paycheck. It’s all stuff that’s been given to him.”

Miller adds the damage being done by the governor comes down to more than just dollars and cents.

“This is catastrophic to the mental health of people, especially given it’s something that was inflicted on them by a tyrannical out of control government and didn’t have to be,” he said.