South Cook News

Gov. Bruce Rauner told listeners of the "Chicago's Morning Answer" radio show that they'd better not rely on entrenched politicians to save them. 

“This really isn’t about Democrats versus Republicans nearly as much as it’s about the people of Illinois taking the power back from the career politicians of the Chicago machine,” Rauner said.

He said one case in point was a recent meeting he had with House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) that turned out to be a sham.

“He used that brief meeting as an excuse for why he didn’t show up when business leaders in Chicago asked me to meet with him and them in a three-way meeting on the budget,” Rauner said.

Rauner also talked about term limits, wasteful spending, the budget impasse and tax reform with co-hosts Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson.

Proft is a principal of Local Government Information Services, which owns this publication.

Rauner said he is focused on the 2018 election cycle and warned voters to pay attention because many of those running for office want to maintain the status quo. The majority that controls the General Assembly has been in power for 35 years and done a lot of damage, he said.

“They’ve driven jobs out of the state," Rauner said. "They have not properly funded our schools. They always spend more, and they’ve created hundreds of billions of debt on us, our kids and our grandchildren."

Career politicians have become millionaires because of the system and high property taxes, according to Rauner, who sees term limits and the reduction of government as ways forward.

“Give power to the people to consolidate their local government," he said. "Don’t rely on politicians. Give the people of Illinois the ability through a simple voter referendum to vote to reduce the number of units of government that they have to pay property taxes to."

Rauner said that while he's recruiting companies like Amazon to come to Illinois and the state is up about 100,000 jobs, the growth doesn’t match what’s happening in Indiana, Wisconsin or Michigan.

The only way to change things is for voters to use the power of the ballot, Rauner said.