I inherited, when I became governor, a state that had been run by a Republican governor who had devastated our fiscal situation, had stagnated the state and left us in a terrible position. I had to rebuild after he left office. We had suffered eight credit downgrades. We had suffered no budget for two years. He left $17 billion of unpaid, overdue bills. So talk about irresponsibility. Republicans can be very irresponsible, too. And the Republican running our state was. I had to turn all of that around. And we've made a whole lot of progress. (37:47–38:01)
CLAIM
Asserts specific fiscal challenges faced by Illinois under the previous administration.
This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.
