State Representative Mike Marron says he is concerned about several agencies and bills in the state right now.
Marron voiced his frustrations during a town hall meeting on Zoom Thursday afternoon with fellow Republican Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer of Jacksonville.
The number one concern Marron says residents have called his office seeking help on is unemployment problems at the Illinois Department of Employment Security. He says he was able to receive a call back from the department but that many issues continue to go unresolved. He notes that even if the state says residents shouldn’t have to worry about fraud issues, they could still run into problems when they try to file their taxes with the IRS.
Other residents have run into problems receiving a renewal on their FOID cards. Marron says Governor J.B. Pritzker has asked Illinois State Police to focus on cannabis arrest expungements and not FOID renewals, and he says he thinks it is also a way to enforce more gun control.
“I feel like this is a way to mess with law-abiding gun owners, and it’s a back-door way of trying to implement some type of gun-control measure, which I think is ridiculous,” he explained.
Several attendees at the town hall had questions about new policies for teachers that a legislative rules panel is set to consider next week. Marron says he thinks schools should focus more on the basics of education such as reading and math, and not on political agendas, and that sex education should only be taught at home. But, he noted that the decision is out of his control.
“I’ve been encouraging everybody to reach out to the Democratic members of JCAR to voice their frustration, because that’s the only way we have of stopping this,” he said.
Marron also says he thinks the Illinois House rules should allow more time for debate on key issues, since only two Republicans were given the opportunity to speak on the recent police-reform bill.
