By Greg Halbleib
A local lawmaker says the state budget crisis was just starting to hit home with the public before the legislature passed a stopgap measure to fund schools.
State Senator Jason Barickman says reports of the possibility that schools might close caught many people’s attention.
“I would run into random people on the street who would stop me and say, ‘Are you serious that our state is so dysfunctional that our schools aren’t going to receive their money and are at risk of not opening or having shortened weeks?’,” Barickman related to WJBC’s Patti Penn. “I said, yeah, that’s real.”
Barickman expects working groups of rank and file lawmakers to provide input on a complete budget in the same way that the groups worked on the stopgap plan.
“I think those conversations that got us to this point will continue,” Barickman said, “and I think they’re probably the blueprint for the way this thing resolves itself, I hope sooner than later.”
Barickman expects a “litany” of new gun control bills in the next session of the General Assembly. The Bloomington Republican says the measures often target the wrong people–law abiding citizens.
“Oftentimes these laws are targeting law-abiding gun owners as opposed to the criminals who are carrying these guns and using them illegally in crimes and other things in Chicago,” Barickman said.
Barickman expects the legislature to tackle gun control measures in the spring after budget-related items are handled first.
PODCAST: Listen to Barickman’s interview with WJBC’s Patti Penn here.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at greg@wjbc.com.
