Dear Friend:

Thank you for visiting my Web site!

As the 96^th General Assembly begins, we face a crossroads in Illinois.  After years of reckless fiscal and ethical behavior by former Governor Blagojevich and his party’s monopoly in the General Assembly, Rod Blagojevich has been removed from office.  In the wake of his departure an opportunity exists to move in the direction of substantive reform.

First and foremost, our state must tackle two critical areas – our fiscal situation and reform a political and policymaking system that will help restore citizens’ faith in Illinois government.  Fiscally, this state has been driven to the brink of fiscal collapse in the last several years. This situation has been brought about by reckless fiscal policies which have dramatically increased out state’s long term debt, driven down job growth, and created the nation’s largest unfunded liability in our pension systems.

As difficult as these fiscal problem may be, adopting a set of aggressive, meaningful reforms that can restore citizens’ faith in Illinois government will be even more challenging.  Confidence in the proposition that decisions made in Springfield are made for the right reasons is at an all times low, and for a good reason. While many ideas will be discussed, certain ideas should be our focus – greater transparency in policymaking and politics, and reducing the length and cost of the campaign season.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you on these issues and others which affect not only the residents of the 55^th Senate District, but the entire state.

As always, it is an honor to serve you.

Sincerely,

Dale Righter