CARBONDALE - Christine Radogno says there's not going to be a lot of theater from her office once she takes the seat of Illinois Senate minority leader next week.

She's there to do a job, not play partisan politics, the Lemont Republican said in an interview with The Southern Illinoisan editorial board Thursday. And in a time when the scandal-ridden Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the controversy of his U.S. Senate appointment have made Illinois politics fodder for cable news analysis and late night talk shows, Radogno said she has hope as a new leader she can help spur improvement.

"I feel a responsibility to at least try," Radogno said.

A decision on impeachment of the governor will have to take place before the Legislature can start work on forming a new operating budget and passing a capital bill to improve state infrastructure, she said.

Everything has to be on the table for the state to find new revenue streams, Radogno said, adding she would be willing to examine proposals like the one State Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, recently proposed in raising the state gas tax to pay for capital projects.

Now is not the time for an income tax increase with the economy, she added, but legislators should find ways to provided services, like Medicaid, which represents 27 percent of the state's total budget, more efficiently.

Radogno said she will also be looking to end the state's ability to hold billions of dollars in a backlog of unpaid bills, as it currently does. She acknowledged that given the state's current financial situation, a solution to that problem will have to be phased in over a period of several years.

Since Democrats still control all state offices and majority leadership in both houses, Radogno said they will have to agree to work across party lines to address the problems.

"I didn't come in (to state politics) as a partisan; I got in because there was a problem I wanted to solve," she said.

caleb.hale@thesouthern.com

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