Illinois state offices should be open on Lincoln's birthday

IllinoisIsBroke.com truck in 2009

Friday is Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Illinois state offices will be closed in honor of America's greatest president. If you need to have your driver's license renewed, or if you need to go over a question with the Illinois Department of Revenue on February 12, you are out of luck. And these same offices will be closed on Monday, President's Day, a federal holiday. In addition to the other federal holidays, Illinois state offices will be closed on the day after Thanksgiving and in even numbered years, General Election Day.

And three members of the state General Assembly want to add one more day to that list, Barack Obama's birthday. 

As for myself, a private-sector worker, the only paid holidays I receive are New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

Illinois is broke and the state's reform governor, Republican Bruce Rauner, is negotiating a new contract with the AFSCME union for state workers. If the Land of Lincoln is going to dig itself out of its self-induced mess, state workers are going to have to concede many items and work a little bit harder.

Here's my idea: State offices should only be closed on federal holidays. Even then, it won't kill them if they work on Columbus Day or Veterans Day too.

It's roll-up-our-sleeves time.