Gov. Bruce Rauner lamented Illinois’ economic standing in comparison to Texas and said the state should at least try “to be average,” during a town-hall meeting Monday with business and community leaders in Wheeling.
Rauner toured the facilities of the business IcarTeam before starting the town-hall session with guests including U.S. Rep. Bob Dold and Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti.
Rauner recently has started suggesting Illinois look to Texas as an example for how to improve the state’s business climate.
“Texas is growing, Texas now pays their factory workers what they’re supposed to be paid,” Rauner said. “We’re supposed to be the pro-employee and pro-union state. Texas is kicking our tail.”
He suggested Illinois aim to be at least average when it comes to economic growth.
“If we just grew at the national average for a year, we wouldn’t have unpaid bills today, we wouldn’t have a deficit today and we wouldn’t have (had) to do the tax hike in 2011,” Rauner said.
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