Carbondale Reporter

State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) fumes about how a lack of transparency is always an issue with Gov. J.B. Pritzker when it comes to his handling of COVID-19.

“So much of the governor’s bridge plan depends on vaccinations,” Bryant said during a recent appearance on WMAY Newsfeed. “It would be interesting to know why that is his metric since he has been less than transparent about how the vaccines will be allocated. If you’re going to make it about the vaccine, then you should be more transparent about the vaccine.”

With the state moving closer to meeting all the requirements he initially outlined as prerequisites in his reopening plan, the governor recently announced a so-called “bridge phase” will now come next in the process.

Among the goals the state must now reach before passing to Phase 5, or full reopening, are that 70% of Illinoisans age 65 and up have received at least one dose of the vaccine and that 50% of Illinoisans 16 and older have been vaccinated, or COVID-19 metrics decline over a 28-day period.

Bryant said this is just more moving the goalposts.

“I’ve been very careful not to attack him, but he has not been transparent about any of the policies he’s put forward,” she added. “But this one affects people’s life. I’ve said it before; he is not the monarch of Illinois. He’s the governor and there’s a co-equal branch of the government. He did not meet with legislators about his plan until after his press conference. That is not acceptable.”

With Illinois having suffered its worst year for job loss in history in 2020, Bryant said she’s hoping to see more Republican lawmakers take a stand.  

“The fact is super-majority party leadership has ceded the responsibility we have to the governor,” she said. “When we as elected officials speak for the people we represent, we're going to have to keep speaking out.”