Carroll: New Leadership Helps the House Focus on Post-COVID Recovery, Responsible Budget

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Jonathon Carroll, D-Northbrook, issued the following statement upon the General Assembly’s adjournment this week:

“This past legislative session has been refreshing after a long difficult year. At the beginning of the year, my colleagues and I came together to elect new Speaker of the House, Emanuel ‘Chris’ Welch for the 102nd General Assembly. So far he has brought a fresh, new perspective to leadership in Springfield.

“This session forced members of the General Assembly on both sides of the aisle to rise to the occasion and work together to adapt to adversity. We were tasked with many issues facing the state during a world-wide pandemic and had to come up with bipartisan solutions to create jobs, put Illinois residents back to work, and get our economy back on track.

“This past weekend, we were also able to pass a long-time priority of mine as we worked to end the use of isolation rooms and abusive restraints being used on students in our public schools. I can speak from first-hand experience how horrific these practices are and that no child should ever have to go through the highly traumatic experience again in Illinois.

“We were also tasked with putting together a responsible budget that will reflect the difficult year we have had in 2020 and early 2021. It was vital that we all worked on bipartisan solutions to identify a budget that had significant cost savings while ensuring we would help our local economies out of the pandemic-induced aftermath. It was important that we were able to maintain care for our vulnerable residents, reduce the tax burden felt by so many Illinoisans and fully fund our schools.

“I look forward to continuing the hard work we have started this past spring to help rebuild our communities and rebound from a global pandemic.”