Macon Reporter

Conversations about the Blue Collars Job Act of 2019 continue as lawmakers are working to make  budget ends meet and ensure the state emerges in somewhat better shape after the pandemic. 

The act was supposed to impose four new tax credits to create incentives for construction projects, generate blue collar jobs and promote development at the beginning of this year, but was halted by Gov. Pritzker who cited pandemic-related losses as the reason that the tax cuts couldn't happen. 

Republican Sen. Chapin Rose is frustrated that Democrats are backtracking on the act they once supported in the House and Senate. In an April 23 video posted by the Illinois Senate Republican Caucus, Rose listed the things he feels Democrats are backpedaling on. 

"Here we are in Illinois as one of the top states in the nation for unemployment with people desperately needing work," Rose said. "Why on earth did the administration and Gov. Pritzker decide [...] he's going to go back on his word, his pledge when he signed the Blue Collar Jobs Act?"

GOP lawmakers say that the state's economic and business prospects will stall and Illinois will remain the least job-growth-friendly state in the nation if the Blue Collar Jobs Act remains this inconsistent, according to the Pantagraph. 

Despite the state being protected by the tax credits not being offered to companies until the construction projects are completed and many indicators that the act could significantly benefit Illinois through attracting companies such as Facebook and the NYSE, Pritzker alleges it's not something the state can afford.

The governor says he is planning to save Illinois $900 billion by closing "corporate tax loopholes."

Republicans say that the act is not a loophole, however, and rather an economic opportunity. 

"What should I tell the men and women in my district that have gotten jobs from this as to the administration is now proposing to walk away from it, walk away from them and their families?" Rose said.