Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, right, chatting with state House Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) during an Inauguration reception in January hosted and Rep. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) | twitter.com/JBPritzker
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, right, chatting with state House Rep. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) during an Inauguration reception in January hosted and Rep. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) | twitter.com/JBPritzker
As Gov. J.B. Pritzker prepares to sign a bill today raising Illinois' minimum wage to $15 over six years, his gaffe last week when he claimed GOP lawmakers had compromised to reach the legislation is fading from memory.
"It is good optics for the media," Michael Dittmar, president of the Village of Elizabeth and Jo Daviess County Republican Party chairman, told the NW Illinois News.
Dittmar said he knew the measure would pass but that he also knows what raising Illinois' minimum wage to $15 over the next six years will do to the state.
Village of Elizabeth President and Jo Daviess County Republican Party Chairman Michael Dittmar
"As much as I want people to make more money, hiking the minimum wage is really not the answer," he said.
The answer is to make the business climate in Illinois better, which would allow wages to adjust accordingly, Dittmar said.
"Instituting sound business reforms and generating economic growth is a better way," he said. "Changing Illinois' business climate to make it more conducive to growth would be a good start."
Illinois is poise to go with an increased minimum wage instead. On Friday, the Illinois House passed Senate Bill 1, which the Senate had passed the previous week. The bill, which incrementally raises the statewide minimum wage beginning with a $1 increase Jan. 1, is on Pritzker's desk.
Shortly after the minimum wage bill passed the Senate, an Illinois Republican Party spokesman called out Pritzker for "misleading" Illinoisans by claiming the minimum wage plan was "the product of compromise and Republican input, even though no Republicans support it."
It was not the first time something Pritzker said has raised brows. A little more than a year ago, when the first-time political candidate was still on the campaign trail, he came under fire for comments he made about African American elected officials in an FBI-taped phone conversation he had with then governor—and now imprisoned—Rod Blagojevich in 2008.
While the compromise Pritzker talked about never happened, it would not have been a bad idea, Dittmar said.
"I think the minimum wage should be increased but with bipartisan support and maybe start with smaller steps to get to $11," he said.
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