Mayor’s Row……by Ned Mitchell 04-25-2005
Amidst all of this Blackberry winter we have been experiencing it is time to begin thinking of warmer outdoor activities. The Sesser Homecoming Rend Lake Days will be celebrating 50 years this June 15, 16, 17, and 18. This year’s events include a carnival every night, Teen Night battle of the bands on the 16th, Carl Acuff, Jr. from Branson, Missouri on the 17th, Michael Twitty on the 18th and Gene Watson will be returning on the 18th. Of course we will have a horse pull on the 17th, an antique tractor pull on the morning of the 18th, car show on the 18th and the parade on the afternoon of the 18th. As usual all events are free to the public. You will probably be asked to donate $1.00 for a ticket for a trip to Hawaii and that money is used to pay for performers of the event. Also the concession stand will be open featuring our famous bar-b-que sandwiches and beginning the 16th the roast corn will be starting. Bring a lawn chair and enjoy one of the longest running events in Southern Illinois. There is no alcohol allowed in the city park and it is a great place to bring the family for some good clean fun in a safe environment!
Tonight Bill & Laurie Sky will be performing in a live concert at the historic Sesser Opera House. Bill and Laurie are award winning Carnegie Hall performers and will perform music and a whole range of instruments. There is no charge for this concert being sponsored by the Sesser Area Chamber of Commerce but donations will be accepted. Come see the show and donate what you want or watch for free, either way Sesser will benefit. We need to have a good crowd out for this show which begins at 7:00 pm.
Recent statistics released from the United States Bureau of Labor reveal a disturbing trend in Illinois, one that our elected officials should sit up and take notice of. In the last two years Illinois has placed 49 out of 50 states in job growth- yes we are next to last. On the other side of that coin Illinois is now ranked second is welfare case increases. Illinois is up 13 percent since 2003 in the number of new welfare increases. Lets see now, we are almost dead last in job growth and we are in second place on welfare case increases. Is anybody paying attention here?
In the same period of time Kentucky had 21,300 new jobs, Missouri 4,700, Iowa 16,500, and Indiana a whopping 54,000 new jobs. Now get this, while those all around us were adding jobs, Illinois actually lost 40,000 jobs! Our Springfield politicians are quite handy and projecting jobs, but rarely ever creating jobs. If we would have only kept pace with the national job growth we would have added 140,000 new jobs. When you look at the payroll benefits of 140,000 new jobs you see 380 million dollars in new tax revenue let alone spending power.
Let us examine that a little farther. More of the bull we hear from the Capitol City is how tourism is going to save us all down here. Multi-million dollar amateur baseball will save the day, we are told. Now that gasoline is two dollars plus per gallon and rising, just who is going to travel much for pleasure? Studies on the cost of gasoline are telling us that folks are going to travel a lot less. That’s a real no brainer, yet those in Springfield will try the tourism trump card to appease us down here as if we don’t know any better. Tourism is an extra for Southern Illinois at best. The jobs created by tourism are by and large minimum wage jobs with no real benefits. In my opinion we need real jobs that pay a decent wage with benefits. Auto manufacturing plants, coal mines and others that a person can retire from and support a family are what we need. There is no excuse for not doing it, look at the states surrounding us. Could it be that governor “not business as usual” is leading us astray? Could it be that our other elected officials are letting him get by with it? Illinois ranks way up in the top as a state that is not friendly to businesses and until we change that image, we are going to continue to drown.
Then I read where the governor has recently created a new $60,000.00 job for the niece of one of his political operatives to promote the drug prescription plan that has flopped immediately after the much ballyhooed press conference announcing it. Promoting the purchase of drugs from Canada, what about the local pharmacy? What about doing business in Illinois? We should all voice our concerns to our elected officials here in Illinois. They are Senator Gary Forby M115 Capitol Building, Springfield, Illinois 62706 (local phone number 439-2504) and State Representative John Bradley at 257-S Stratton Building, Springfield, Illinois 62706 (local phone number 997-9697). These folks work for us but if they don’t hear from us they can only assume we are happy. I write them fairly often or call and let them know my feelings and you should too. It just takes a minute or two and they really appreciate hearing from us. In all fairness I do think our guys try their best to represent us but if we don’t get this state back on track we’ll soon wake up with closed schools, no doctors, no jobs, hey wait a minute, we’re already there. Does anybody notice?
If we can help you at city hall we are accessible and can be reached at 625-3611, city hall, 625-5322, business, 625-5788, home or via internet at nedmitchell@verizon.net
We’ll do our best to listen to your suggestions or help you where we can.
Previous Issues
| |
|
