Dupage Policy Journal

State Rep. Amy Grant (R-Wheaton) still struggles to see how Gov. J.B. Pritzker can justify giving small business owners across the state a job none of them seems to want.

“It is not fair or practical for business employees to act as the mask police,” Grant said. “The governor needs to quit writing policy and pushing it through as executive orders and emergency rules. No one is saying we shouldn’t have guidelines, but the governor needs to include the legislature in these decisions.”

After a failed first attempt, Pritzker recently won approval to enact a rule that paves the way for small business owners to be fined up to $2,500 for not enforcing the state’s mask mandate. Along party lines, lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules approved the measure this month. Pritzker has defended his actions by asserting he did not want to punish regular people for not wearing masks, and thus decided to place the onus for upholding the rule on business owners.

Given all small business owners have already had to endure since the pandemic hit, from being forced to close their businesses to limiting operations, Grant wonders how much more the governor thinks small business owners can take and still have a chance at surviving.

“I think it would be terribly unfair to put that burden on any business,” she said just days before he was given the green-light to move forward. “If the governor wants to make a proclamation stipulating any of this, he needs to call lawmakers back in session and do it in a setting where all the pieces of government can have a voice and are able to express their views.”