Rock Island Today

The Reimagine Illinois campaign could mean big things for the Illinois workforce, which struggled before and during the COVID-19 pandemic to access quality employment and training. 

Last month state Reps. Tony McCombie (R-Rock Falls) and Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg) sat together in an IL House GOP video to discuss the importance of human capital investment. 

"We need to invest in our human capital," McCombie said. "Illinois is one of the greatest places in the U.S. to live, geographically, our transportation systems. We are placed to be very successful, save for bad policy. That bad policy is not investing in our human capital."

McCombie encouraged the legislature to consider investing in opportunities for the workforce outside of a four-year degree. Resources such as community college and trade, the representative said, deserve policy attention just as much as advanced higher education. 

"We need to be putting policy together for corporations and manufacturing businesses to come to Illinois, rather than being taken from us to go to other states," McCombie said. 

Illinois is facing a shortage of places to work and a surplus of people looking for employment, the representative explained, and where there are places to work people are not offered a livable wage. 

McCombie was recently frustrated with Gov. J.B. Pritzker after he suspended the Blue Collar Jobs Act, legislation meant to create incentives for corporations to set up shop in the state. 

"[The Blue Collar Jobs Act] was our take that we needed for businesses and growth in Illinois," McCombie said. "[...] To go back when that was already put into  effect is really disingenuous. I am not a fan of that at all."

State Rep. Martin McLaughlin (R-Lake Barrington) also urged Illinoisans to return to work to help rebuild the economy in the wake of the pandemic. 

“As we emerge from COVID-19-ordered shutdowns and face a new, unexpected challenge of finding a workforce to fill the jobs necessary to assist our local businesses in reopening, I have, like most of you, a lot of Main Street communities in my district with small business owners who are trying to reopen fully,” McLaughlin recently shared. “They've struggled and saved and unfortunately many will not  open again. But for those that have, we need to support them now.”