Pat Quinn
41st Governor of Illinois
Pat Quinn served as the 41st Governor of Illinois from January 29, 2009 to January 12, 2015. When Gov. Quinn took the oath of office, Illinois was in the midst of a triple crisis of government corruption at the highest level, budget instability, and economic collapse caused by the deepest recession since the Great Depression.
Gov. Quinn navigated Illinois through each crisis, rebuilding our state one hard step at a time. He restored integrity by enacting comprehensive ethics legislation, first-ever campaign finance contribution limits, stronger Freedom of Information Act standards, and passing a constitutional amendment for gubernatorial recall.
Gov. Quinn made job creation and economic growth his top priority. He took immediate action to revive the state’s auto industry and enacted significant worker compensation and unemployment insurance reforms to improve the Illinois business climate. At the end of Gov. Quinn’s tenure, more people were working in Illinois than at any point since 2008, and unemployment reached its lowest point in six years. The unemployment rate dropped significantly in every region of the state.
Gov. Quinn’s $31 billion Illinois Jobs Now! initiative was the biggest capital construction program in state history, building 8,980 miles of highway, 1,475 bridges, and 1,050 schools while creating 400,000 jobs. Thousands of additional jobs were created by the Governor’s Clean Water Initiative, Move Illinois tollway building program, and Put Illinois to Work, an emergency employment program that gave 30,000 people meaningful jobs in the depths of the recession.
Gov. Quinn championed and won passage of progressive legislation to make Illinois a better and more decent state. He made Illinois the most veteran-friendly state in the nation and enacted the largest increase in healthcare coverage in state history. The Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit was doubled in value. Renewable energy and energy efficiency were expanded. Illinois abolished the death penalty and established marriage equality for all couples, thanks to Gov. Quinn’s leadership.
Gov. Quinn made the tough decisions to address the state’s fiscal instability caused by the recession and years of financial mismanagement. During his tenure, Gov. Quinn cut more than $5 billion in spending. He imposed tight spending caps while signing legislation to provide sufficient revenue for state programs such as education, healthcare, public safety, and human services.
Gov. Quinn drove down the state’s backlog of overdue bills from nearly $10 billion to $3.9 billion, the lowest level in years, and paid the state’s actuarially-required pension payments every year of his tenure. Despite the hardship caused by the recession, Gov. Quinn made proper education funding a bedrock principle of his administration from early childhood investment to higher education, including college scholarships for students in financial need.
Gov. Quinn signed legislation expanding democracy in Illinois by allowing online and Election Day voter registration. Throughout his public life, Gov. Quinn has been a believer in grassroots democracy through petition and referendum.
In 1976, Gov. Quinn led the largest petition drive in state history that collected 635,158 signatures and stopped a century-old practice that allowed Illinois legislators to collect their entire annual salary on their first day in office. In 1980, Gov. Quinn spearheaded the referendum campaign for the Cutback Amendment which reduced the size of the Illinois House in the only constitutional amendment ever adopted by citizen initiative in Illinois. Another Quinn referendum drive in 1983 led to the creation of the Citizens Utility Board (CUB), Illinois’ largest consumer group.
Gov. Quinn was elected Commissioner of the Cook County Board of (Property Tax) Appeals in 1982 and Illinois State Treasurer in 1990. He was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2002 and 2006 where he championed the Illinois Military Family Relief Act which provided more than $15 million in financial assistance to 28,000 Illinois servicemembers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gov. Quinn graduated from St. Isaac Jogues grammar school in Hinsdale and Fenwick High School in Oak Park. He received a degree in international economics from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. Gov. Quinn has practiced public interest law since 1980.
Gov. Quinn was born on December 16, 1948 in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago and grew up in Hinsdale. He is the son of Patrick and Eileen Quinn, who were married for 65 years. Gov. Quinn has two brothers, Tom and John, and two sons, Patrick and David, and has lived on the West Side of Chicago for the past 34 years.
