Legislators prioritize job retention         

To the editor:

We are days away from the start of a new fiscal year, and yet, no budget agreement is in sight. We are ready and willing to work with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle but feel strongly that any budget agreement must provide for adequate funding of education and health care, while promoting both job retention and job growth.

The state's economy cannot grow as it should without creating more jobs and retaining existing ones. There is no question that jobs are the necessary fuel for real economic growth in the state.

There is a Republican consensus that the state budget should not contain tax hikes. Fee hikes also are counterproductive, as last year's disastrous fee hikes on truckers proved. Instead of raising revenue, the hikes drove business out of Illinois to adjoining states with lower fees and, apparently, a better understanding of what is necessary to encourage business growth.

Yet, the governor insists that fee hikes be levied on more employers. We, of course, are opposed to that.

We also are opposed to the governor's irresponsible approach to crafting a budget by borrowing more in order to spend more. We are particularly concerned with the governor's stated intention to raid the state's road fund in order to satisfy his appetite to spend more and more.

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Concern about resolving the budget crisis has overshadowed other important concerns that must be addressed. In addition to the budget, we must also reach a consensus prior to adjournment on how best to remedy the growing physician flight from the state.

The state is experiencing a real crisis of physician flight as malpractice insurance rates climb so high that doctors are literally priced out of the state or forced to end their practices.

Physician flight has resulted in vast areas of the state being left without adequate health care. There are no neurosurgeons left in the state below Interstate 72, and the remaining obstetrician-gynecologists are limiting the scope of their practices because of liability concerns. We must find a way to solve this crisis.

We are also willing to work with our Democrat colleagues in both the House and Senate to reach agreement on a responsible budget that honors our priorities.

Sincerely,

Larry Bomke, state senator
50th District

Rich Brauer, state representative
100th District

Raymond Poe, state representative
99th District

(posted 6-29-04)

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Pertussis warning validated         

While I am glad that the Illinois Department of Public Health has put out a warning about pertussis, I wish the same would have been have been done last summer in my community. I almost lost my 4-week-old daughter last September when she contracted pertussis at the tender age of 2 weeks.

After finding out what she had we discovered that there were around 15-30 cases of it in the two counties that I live in. My local public health department said that those numbers were pretty close to what they had.

When I asked why the public had not been warned about it, she said that that was not done; they didn't want to "scare" people. Had I been "scared," I might not have taken my daughter out as much or as soon as I did.

Thank goodness she is fine and healthy now. She is a bright and happy 10-month-old baby. A far cry from the 7 pound, 4-week-old baby with feeding tubes down her nose and monitors hooked up all over her body.

Michelle Durbin

(posted 6-29-04)

Related postings

• Pertussis outbreak prompts public health warning
• Baby suffering; mother urges immunizations
  (Sept. 15, 2003)