Dupage Policy Journal

State Rep. Amy Grant (R-Wheaton) believes that Illinois is at a point to relax more COVID-19 restrictions based on the data available. 

“Despite steadily improving COVID-19 metrics that should move most areas of Illinois back to Tier 3 mitigations, the governor has moved the goalposts again, and there’s no end to Tier 3 in sight,” Grant said. “This one-man rule must stop. The governor must engage with the Legislature.”

For the first time in weeks, the Pritzker administration’s recent metrics to gauge the spread of the virus indicate conditions across much of Chicago have improved to the point most of the area now appears to qualify for the stipulations pulled back.

The governor, however, raised concerns about the 2020 holiday season travel impact on COVID-19 as justification to continue restrictions. Instead, the governor has gone on record in expressing he has no intention of adhering to his pre-established standards. 

“My concern is we might or are going to see some uptick from Christmas and New Year’s in hospitalizations as well as patients,” Pritzker told WGN. “What we don’t want to do is swing back and forth between mitigations and not having mitigations within days or a week or two of one another.”

Still, none of it sits right with Grant, who has long been one of the governor’s harshest critics in Springfield over his handling of the crisis, including the recent ban he placed on indoor dining.

“These new mitigations will decimate restaurants and bars that are already struggling,” Grant said. “I appreciate the county board’s willingness to lend a financial hand to help keep these businesses afloat.”

Grant has also taken the governor to task over his earlier support for a plan that would allow small business owners to be fined up to up to $2,500 for not enforcing the state’s mask mandate in their establishment.

“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.”

The state has been Tier 3 restrictions since Thanksgiving, resulting in all theaters and casinos across the state also being closed.