Lake County Gazette

Jim Walsh is warning Gov. J.B. Pritzker the more he tightens regulations across the state, the harder it will be to get a grip on the state’s tumbling population problem.

“We’re just California and New York, big states that are all losing population because we’re making the mistake of trying to regulate things too tightly,” Walsh told the Lake County Gazette. “There’s no way Illinois can survive with all the regulations we’re putting on businesses right now and that’s what’s driving so many people away.”

Walsh, who narrowly lost his 62nd District race against Democrat incumbent state Rep. Sam Yingling in November, points to the latest Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) job numbers as proof.

According to researchers, Illinois has now lost jobs in two of the last three months, all of it coming at a time when much of the rest of the country is showing signs of stabilizing in the face of COVID-19 to the tune of seven straight months of job growth. Not surprisingly the bulk of the job losses across Illinois have come in the leisure and hospitality industry, which lost upwards of 27,000 during the month of November alone as the governor’s ban on indoor dining continues.

Walsh worries things may get worse before they get better, barring a drastic change of direction coming from the governor’s mansion.   

“When people lose their jobs they leave and we’ve already killed about 60% of our small business industry with all these COVID restrictions,” he said. “I honestly don’t think the governor cares. He seems to be so far disconnected from reality nothing matters to him. He does what he does and everybody else be damned.”