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Guest Blog: Pass a Comprehensive Budget for the Sake of Illinois Children, Families and Businesses

By Martin Torres

We’ve gone more than 722 consecutive days without a state budget, which negatively impacts Illinois children, families, business-owners and taxpayers.  This is the longest Illinois, and perhaps any state in the nation, has ever gone without a comprehensive annual budget. 

The consequences of this unprecedented failure are morally repulsive and economically irresponsible and the effects on Latinos, African-American and low-income white families have been devastating. For example, Mujeres Latinas en Acción, a Forum Acuerdo member, is just one of the many social services providers struggling to maintain services because of this budget impasse. The organization has been forced to lay off staff, furlough staff and rely on a second line of credit for day-to-day expenditures as a result of the lack of state funding. You can read more examples of the budget impasse’s effects by visiting the Illinois budget clock here, but here’s a quick list of other chilling effects on Illinois:

More than 1 million people have lost access to human services according to a survey conducted by the United Way (https://capitolfax.com/2016/06/23/united-way-survey-finds-1-million-people-lost-services/)

Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills now exceeds $15.4 billion dollars

Illinois’ credit rating has been lowered eight times and is now one notch above junk status, costing the state millions of dollars as the cost of borrowing increases.  The state now has the worst credit rating in the nation

Lawmakers returned to Springfield this week for a special session at the behest of Governor Rauner after a budget deal could not be reached by May 31.  Now that the Legislature has gone into “overtime,” budget bills and any other part of the package will require a three-fifths majority in each chamber because the bills would take immediate effect.

The Latino Policy Forum is pushing for lawmakers to do what is necessary to pass a comprehensive budget that is supported with sustainable, progressive forms of revenue.  Illinois children and families cannot continue to pay the price for inaction.  

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