Quinn pushes for minimum wage increase – early childhood education spending
By Monique Garcia, Ray Long and Maura Zurick Clout Street
SPRINGFIELD — A re-election seeking Gov. Pat Quinn used his State of the State speech Wednesday to declare that Illinois is “making a comeback” under his leadership and unveil a modest agenda of spending more on early childhood development and increasing the minimum wage.
The address marked five years to the day since Quinn rose to the state’s top post after Rod Blagojevich was ousted as governor, and his successor sought to illustrate how far Illinois has come since the state suffered its “darkest moment.”
“We were facing an unprecedented triple crisis of government corruption, economic collapse and financial instability,” Quinn said. “But over the past five years, we’ve rebuilt one hard step at a time. And we’ve been getting the job done. Illinois is making a comeback.”
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