Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner is dismissing claims that he's anti-union because he advocates letting local government employees decide if they want to join a union.
Echoing much of his agenda from his first State of the State address, the Republican on Thursday launched a four-stop Illinois tour in in Troy in southern Illinois.
He told a few hundred in attendance that local voters, cities and counties should be able to create right-to-work zones where union membership isn't mandatory. He says that would attract business.
"The states that are already growing don't force unionization into their economy," Rauner told an audience at Richland Community College in Decatur last month.
He also told reporters that he's working with the Democrat-controlled state Legislature to identify where the state can find money to fund a subsidized day care program that's hundreds of millions of dollars short. He didn't say specify from where that money would come.