Hi everyone, I’m Illinois State Comptroller and Democratic candidate for governor Dan Hynes. Some of you may recall that I blogged here on Daily Kos last month, and you may remember how well my last attempt at live-blogging went...
I'll be kind to myself and say that we left some room for improvement, but the good news is, I'll be personally answering your questions in the comments section today, and we're happy you're taking the time to join us.
As many of you know, I’m running against Governor Pat Quinn in the Illinois Democratic primary. Right now, our state is in the middle of a $10 billion budget crisis. After more than a decade of governors who rejected calls for fiscal responsibility, our state finds itself in a position where we cannot meet our commitments and pay our bills. This has an enormously negative impact on the Illinois economy, affecting our ability to support education, enable access to health care, build and maintain roads and bridges, and cover social services. In my time as Comptroller, I tried to raise the alarm on this dangerous pattern several times, but my warnings all too often fell on deaf ears.
I’m running because we need a competent, steady leader who has a plan and vision to get Illinois back on its feet. Governor Quinn has had eight months to put our budget back on a path to fiscal solvency, and hasn't managed to get it done. I’ve released a plan that would eliminate our deficit by 2012 and help us meet our commitments and pay our bills while protecting important programs that are currently threatened like the grants that make college more affordable for 138,000 Illinois students. I believe that an open, honest airing of these ideas in a Democratic primary is the best way to get our state moving forward.
Well, enough about me. I’m eager to hear your thoughts and questions on this race. I’ll stick around in the comments section for the next half hour or so to chat with you. The Netroots have an important role to play in ending the broken style of politics in our state and getting things moving again. I hope our conversation can begin this important work.
--Dan