By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

While Illinois lawmakers continue work in Springfield, they’re gearing up for the 2018 election season, which may take some attention away from the important tasks at hand.

State Senator Jason Barickman said they’ve done some good things in recent months, but he’s worried that the election may make it more difficult to address more important issues.

“We made changes to our energy laws that made a positive impact to the Clinton and DeWitt County, Central Illinois communities. So we’ve done some positive things that I think deserve some attention, but we also need to focus on what lies ahead and what lies ahead is a very difficult election year. You’ve already seen tens of millions of dollars spent on the politics of the moment and we need to wade through that mess and focus on our objectives of the year, which, I think, should include the adoption of a balanced budget for our state,” Barickman said.

Barickman was a guest on a recent Community Forum. That podcast is available at WJEZ.com.