Illinois Valley Times

After Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he would criminalize any businesses not following stay-at-home orders, State Rep. David Allen Welter released a statement against the governor's threats. 

“Enough is enough. It is absolutely outrageous and wrong for the governor to weaponize the rule-making process to tag struggling Illinoisans as criminals," Welter said in his statement. "In what bizarre universe does a governor criminalize local small and family-owned businesses who are trying to survive at the same time he directs the Illinois Department of Corrections to let convicted murderers and violent felons out of prison because of the virus?"

According to Pritzker's order, any owner who opens a business outside of his five-phase Restore Illinois plan  will be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which can result in a fine up to $2,500 and 364 days in jail. 

"This is a vast government overreach in a time when business owners are doing everything they can to survive," Welter said. "Filing these emergency rules when communities across the state are already meeting guidelines to reopen safely is an abuse of power by the governor. The people of Illinois have to stand up for their rights, and the General Assembly should have the right to vote on the governor’s policies in response to COVID-19. I am going to fight the governor’s abuse of power as strenuously as I can.”