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Bar, restaurant owners, employees protest outside Governor s Mansion
Brenden Moore
State Journal-Register
Keith Loukinen has had perhaps the best view of the Illinois Governor’s Mansion of any restaurateur since opening his fine dining establishment across the street in 2017.
But on Saturday, Loukinen, in his full chef uniform, made the short walk to the front of the mansion to join about 100 bar and restaurant owners, employees and patrons to protest the mitigations put in place by Gov. JB Pritzker and enforced by Sangamon County public health officials.
The mitigations, in place since November, have closed bars and restaurants for indoor service for the second time in a year.
Illinois Chamber of Commerce says push to end incentives wrong approach
The Illinois Chamber of Commerce says the push to end business incentives to plug the state’s nearly $4 billion budget hole is the wrong approach during an economic crisis.
CEO Todd Maisch said the government should be helping businesses, not punishing them with higher taxes.
Statehouse Democrats are pushing to end what they call “loopholes” and “giveaways” for businesses instead of the governor’s proposed $711 million in cuts.
Pritzker says unemployment issues not unique to Illinois
Gov. J.B. Pritzker says the problems Illinois’ unemployment agency is experiencing with backlogs and fraud is happening in other states.
The empty bar at Dew Chilli Pub & Grill on North Grand. There s no sugarcoating it. COVID-19 has been the catalyst for a nightmare year. Bars and restaurants were and continue to be among the hardest hit. In the second month of new mitigations, many plan to voice their concerns at a rally on Dec. 19.
Too soon? A prevailing attitude among Springfield bar and restaurant owners is that the first shutdown came too early for central Illinois. We followed all the rules at the beginning, said Ryan Bandy, owner of Win, Lose, or Draught in Springfield and vice president of CILBA (Central Illinois Licensed Beverage Association). It got really frustrating in early April into May and June, because we didn t really have any big outbreaks in our area but were still shut down. The governor decided to be overly cautious, which was his prerogative, but it didn t work.