THE FOLLOWING RELEASE IS FROM STATE REP MIKE MARRON’S OFFICE
SPRINGFIELD… State Representative Mike Marron (R-Fithian) released the following statement after the Illinois Auditor General released his audit revealing the State paid out more than $5 billion in fraudulent or excessive unemployment claims over two years.
“Back in the early days of the pandemic, I stood outside the Governor’s mansion in the freezing cold until he would actually take my phone call advocating for the hardworking constituents in Illinois trying to navigate a broken system.
“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shutdown, IDES offices were closed throughout the state, concerned citizens could not get anyone on the phone, and the IDES online portal was a complete disaster.
“The Governor shut down our main streets and spent over three years issuing executive orders from his cushy mansion in Chicago telling us all in Illinois that he and his staff knew what was best for us. Meanwhile, our working families had to wait months to even begin their unemployment claims.
“The Pritzker Administration avoided our calls and failed to adequately provide us with any real information to help our constituents. This audit is another example of the expensive price tag that accompanies the complete mismanagement and failures of the Pritzker Administration.
“The state should have used the CARES or ARPA funds to pay off the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund liability in its entirety so that job creators wouldn’t be harmed due to the pandemic. Instead, our Democrat leaders funneled cash into Democratic pork projects and raised our state budget line up billions without any sustainable revenue streams.
“Now, as we predicted, workers and job creators are on the hook for this incompetence. The disaster at IDES is like many of the state agencies run by our “Executive Order” Governor.
“I hope the Governor will finally take responsibility for the fiscal malfeasance and broken promises he made to Illinoisans, because the taxpayers of Illinois should never have been on the hook for this level of incompetence.”
