Danville’s two representatives in the Illinois General Assembly have been named to committee leadership posts in Springfield.
State Senator Scott Bennett is now the new chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, which oversees colleges and universities in the state. Bennett previously chaired the senate’s agriculture committee, but he says this new post holds more significance since colleges affect every area of the state, not just certain regions. He told WDAN’s Linda Bolton earlier this week that higher education is the solution to many of the state’s needs.
“It’s hard to imagine Danville’s and Vermilion County’s economy without DACC morphing into this economic engine and figuring out how we keep employers here, how we train people, and it may not be a two-year degree, it might be a certificate,” he explains.
In the state house, Representative Mike Marron is now the Republican ranking member of the transportation committee as well as a member of a newly formed fire and police committee.
Marron says that he and Bennett are working on a few local issues. He says they are working to transfer some state-owned land on Route 1 in Tilton to the village for economic development. Marron also says he is working to provide suicide information on every school website, as well as a bill to allow spouses of veterans who were filling out benefit applications at the time of their deaths to receive those benefits.
