A series of speeches around the state gave a preview of what Governor Bruce Rauner will say Wednesday for his first "State of the State" address.
Rauner has dropped nuggets of what's to come, in Power Point presentations he gave to audiences in Chicago, Champaign and here, in Decatur.
"Today Illinois is on an unsustainable path. I'm gonna talk about why. But we are on a trajectory that is just fundamentally unsustainable. And we need a big change, a transformation to get off that path."
The governor's recipe for change, like establishing local "right-to-work" zones, has already put Illinois' strong union movement on the defensive. Expect Rauner to elaborate more on that, during his speech.
Rauner, the state's first Republican governor in a dozen years, won't be the biggest elephant in the room. That'll be the state's budget, which is steadily building a deficit.
Rauner has kept largely quiet about his financial plans, and it's likely he'll wait to reveal them until his budget address later this month.
