Letter to Editor on State Budget

June 30, 2009

Dear Editor:

Illinois state legislators are working through the state budget and face huge deficits if they cannot find additional revenue or seriously cut state services.

The state budget meltdown must be resolved with a substantial increase in revenues or the proposed budget cuts will be unconscionably cruel to hundreds of our vulnerable neighbors and relatives. Many people depend on state-funded supports like quality child care to keep their jobs, foster care subsidies to have a safe home, and home health care to remain independent. Programs supporting the arts, parks and recreation, and public safety improve the lives of all of us.

Agencies which provide services to people who need help have been operating by combining state dollars with private fundraising and by underpaying and overworking their staff. These agencies have been notified their state dollars will be eliminated or reduced. Not only will those requiring services be hurt, but those who provide these services will find their jobs gone, leaving thousands unemployed and possibly in need of services themselves.

Those who claim that cuts could be made in other programs before vulnerable people are affected are short on details. Programs like education and Medicaid are matched by federal stimulus dollars. Chopping funds from these programs would result in a loss of matching funds, leaving an even greater budget deficit than we currently face. Also, those programs have been shamefully underfunded for many years. Pension obligations, deferred by our governors and state legislators for many years, have snowballed.

The League of Women Voters has been for decades predicting the train wreck now upon us. Inadequate revenue and increasing state obligations for health care, retiree benefits, etc. have been the result of actions taken by both Republican and Democratic administrations. We urge that our elected leaders stop pointing fingers and misleading the public about the need for an income tax increase. We don’t need more debate; we need action to care for our most vulnerable citizens. We need to ensure that all citizens of Illinois receive those services critical to making Illinois a great state to live in.

The League of Women Voters urges you to contact our state legislators and urge them to vote to raise the revenues to fund a full year's budget by increasing the income tax. Illinois requires this revenue to educate our children and help the needy and vulnerable people in our state.

Please contact:

State Representative Sandra Pihos: (217)558-1072 or (630)858-8855

State Senator Dan Cronin: (630)792-0040

House Leader Michael Madigan: (217)782-5350

Senate President Tom Cullerton (217)782-7260

Sincerely,

Ginger Wheeler

President

League of Women Voters of Glen Ellyn