Position Statement and Resources
Dear Colleagues,
At the end of last week, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois began receiving a series of preliminary contract termination notices from the state agencies which contract with LSSI to provide human care services. The focus of the notices is to delineate the impact on LSSI if the budget passed by the Illinois General Assembly on May 31st is implemented on July 1.
Based on these notices, it is clear that services to children, disabled persons, poor families, seniors and other vulnerable populations would be drastically cut. Programs would be eliminated or reduced to the point that they could no longer provide services safely and in compliance with the law. While specific program-by-program impacts on LSSI’s services have not yet been calculated, it is clear that the impact on the people we serve and the jobs of many of our talented and dedicated staff are in jeopardy.
What is our response?
Since 2002, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) has called for fundamental tax and budget reform in Illinois that would:
- Raise sufficient revenue on a sustainable basis to fund all vital state services, including human care (nutrition, housing, health care, social service and education). Specifically, LSSI has been a long-time supporter of Senate Bill 750, currently embodies in House Bill 174 which was passed by the Illinois State Senate on May 30 and awaits action in the Illinois House of Representatives.
- Provide tax relief for low and moderate income households to protect them from any necessary tax increase. Such protections are included in HB 174.
- Reduce the dependence of local school districts on the local property tax to fund public education, thereby addressing the extreme discrepancy in education funding between property-rich and property-poor school districts.
Lutheran Social Services of Illinois urges Governor Quinn and legislative leaders to negotiate a new state budget for State Fiscal Year 2010 that includes:
- Tax reform along the lines of HB 174 to provide adequate funding for state services through a combination of an increase in the personal income tax rate and an expansion of the state sales tax to include some services.
- Funding of all human care contracts and grants at a level not less than the FY 2009 level.
RESOURCES
- Voices for Illinois Children has created some great materials which can be found at their website: http://voices4kids.org/getinvolved/callforkids.html
- Talking points for speaking with legislators
- Responses to some of legislators’ more common explanations of why they didn’t/won’t vote for an income tax increase
- Roll calls on income tax vote
- Frequently asked questions on the current budget situation
- A press release template for orgs. that want to declare their support of an income tax increase
