McHenry Times

Illinois state Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) has a clear agenda he hopes will mark his return to Springfield.

“Being back in Springfield will provide us with an extra opportunity to talk about things and possibly engage the governor about legislation that will help ease people through this coronavirus crisis,” Ugaste told the McHenry Times. “The governor needs to hear the voice of the people of this state when it comes to where we need to go from here.”

Lawmakers are set to return to work in the coming days to weigh those topics and more, none of which figures to be made any easier by Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently threatening to strip counties of all federal funding and prosecute small business owners if they defy his stay-at-home order and restart their economies sooner than when he has outlined for them.

“I would expect that would be the course he would take since the only way he can enforce his executive orders is by having law enforcement work with,” Ugaste said. “The problem with that is I know some county sheriffs have indicated they won’t be enforcing it. All over the state, people are feeling indifferent about what the governor is trying to do.”

Ugaste said Republicans have tried to offer possible solutions, only to be completely ignored by Pritzker.

“We’re closer to the people than the governor is and really feel he should be hearing from us before the government takes all the actions that it has,” he said.

 Ugaste said he isn’t surprised to see that people have reached their boiling point when it comes to returning to some level of normalcy.

“I don’t think these small business owners want to be defiant or anything like that,” he said. “I just think that they don’t feel they should have to go through all this to be considered law abiding citizens able to make a living for themselves. Their thinking is if big-box retailers can follow precautions and social distancing guidelines, they can do the same to make a living for themselves."