Restaurant Lobby And Chefs Urge Tweaks To Illinois Reopening Plan

One of the Illinois lawmakers feeling the tension between health and business most acutely is Senator Sara Feigenholtz. Her Chicago district includes Lakeview and Lincoln Park, with some of the state’s most visited attractions and restaurants. She said she gets it.

“I am the daughter of a doctor,” she said, “but I also have a tremendous appreciation for what these businesses are going through.”

This week in Springfield, she’ll face the delicate balancing act of representing business concerns while helping support a governor whose plans have come under legal attack from entities around the state.

“We’re going to go down to Springfield as a legislature to perhaps codify and address some of the things that he has done, so that he doesn’t have to solely carry the burden,” she said. “We are a coequal branch of government, and that is our responsibility.”

When it comes to tweaking the reopening plan, Feigenholtz sees the possibility to “nibble around the edges and remediate and loosen some regulations safely,” she said. “But we can’t do it with peril afoot.”

She also noted that federal help from the pending Heroes Act stimulus bill could go a long way in reducing the pressure for the state to reopen so soon.

“We will pull every [state] lever we can to safely give small businesses the opportunity to stay afloat as we wait for the federal government to give us more relief,” she said. “But we cannot do this without the federal government.”

 

Read the full article at WBEZ Chicago:

https://www.wbez.org/stories/restaurant-lobby-and-chefs-urge-tweaks-to-illinois-reopening-plan/8c7a1922-23ef-4fbe-994f-0589d53c5417