What is wrong with Illinois?

Mackenzie Freund, City Editor

2-year-old Fern Jones thinks pumpkin pie is yummy, and so do a lot of people in Illinois.

Corn also seems to be a big hit among people in the state.

What I don’t understand is that Gov. Bruce Rauner recently named these two different foods as the official state vegetable and pie this year.

This does not make sense to me.

How is it that this year, Rauner has decided that we can have official state vegetables and pies, but he cannot give the Illinois residents a budget.

I understand that creating a budget is a lot more work than just sitting down for five minutes and deciding one, but why are official state foods more important than giving us a budget?

On July 18, Rauner signed the legislation to make sweet corn the official state vegetable after state Sen. Sam McCann introduced it, according to NBC Chicago.

That legislation had unanimous support.

In January, Rep. Keith Sommer introduced the legislation for pumpkin pie to be the official state pie, and this legislation was voted on to become a law in August.

It just makes me think that these little pieces of legislation can get all of the members of the house and the senate to unanimously agree on voting for these, but they cannot sit down and draft a budget or find a way to get us back to being a functional state.

There are different state programs that have not happened because of the lack of a budget.

Cook County Police training had to be canceled because of the lack of a budget.

The Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Services is in danger of closing because they are not getting their state funds.

Some students are in danger of not receiving their Monetary Award Program Grants because of the lack of a state budget.

The State Journal Register said in an article in August that the state would pass legislation for 130,000 college students to receive their MAP grants for this semester.

Rauner signed the bill but said he does not like to pass legislation like that without an actual budget in place.

My question for the governor is, why then have you not worked with the House and the Senate on drafting a budget that everyone can be happy with?

It seems that most of the budget has been paid off because the courts stepping in and telling the government to pay things.

Is that really how our government is functioning now?

Mackenzie Freund is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].