Rauner rips Quinn at Austin charter school groundbreaking

At the groundbreaking for a charter school in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, Gov. Bruce Rauner slammed his predecessor, saying Pat Quinn has left him plenty of work to do.

Asked about how he plans to deal with Illinois’ new medical marijuana law, he described it as a “mess” that Quinn had created and “then ran away from.”

After weeks of anticipation — and in a move that appeared to leave many of his staff surprised and embarrassed — Quinn left office without issuing any licenses to grow or sell medical marijuana in Illinois.

“We owe a duty to the taxpayers and the families of this state to check the process and make sure it’s been done right, according to the law,” Rauner told reporters.

Rauner went on to say: “So we’re doing a review right now. We’re going to do it on a timely basis, and in the coming days we’ll be announcing what conclusions we’ve reached and how best to proceed in the process from here.”

Rauner was similarly critical of the budget he inherited from Quinn.“What Gov. Quinn did was make up some numbers for different departments to get through the election,” Rauner said.

That, Rauner said, was “fundamentally dishonest,” adding, “It’s actually unconstitutional what he did, but he did it.”