Winter storm proves Illinois has plenty of ‘non-essential’ government workers

Snow plow drivers, state troopers, prison guards and Gov. Pat Quinn (and his spokespeople) are apparently just about all the state government Illinois needs.

In the grasp of a “polar vortex,” Illinois closed state government offices and told all non-essential government workers to stay home.

“We said to all of those in critical response, ‘You gotta be here,’” Quinn said at an apparently critical news conference in Chicago on Monday. “My job is to be here when people really need our help…I think it’s important that our government be here when people need us.”

But that begs the question, who is a non-essential government worker?

Thousands of people who answer phones in the massive state bureaucracy were told to stay home. Same with the folks who sell license plates and the people who run Illinois’ universities. Even the folks implementing Obamacare got a day off because they are not needed.

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