HR0121 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0121 LRB102 15792 MST 21159 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has faced years of financial instability and mismanagement; years of routine promises made about grandiose spending plans that were never consistent with actual state revenues have resulted in budget deficits that have collectively culminated in the current bleak fiscal condition of the State of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, When crafting and subsequently presenting FY21 budget projections, Governor Pritzker's administration consistently relied on fictional revenue to balance his budget proposals or highlight his spending priorities; and

WHEREAS, The Governor has a history of taking action to increase state spending by billions of dollars without offering or passing real and concrete revenue solutions to pay for them; and

WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker's FY21 introduced budget relied on $1.4 billion in so-called "Fair Tax" revenues that, at the time, were not approved by the voters; adding to this budget deficit variable, the State and country were later impacted with the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused significant harm to the State's economy and revenue outlook; and

WHEREAS, By May 2020, the majority party and the Governor's Administration were busy negotiating, discussing, and ultimately drafting the FY21 budget, which, unsurprisingly, relied on the ill-advised revenue projections; and

WHEREAS, Democratic members of the House and Senate passed a budget for Fiscal Year 2021 that, at the time, reflected an estimated $6.2 billion structural deficit, despite pleas by Republican members of the legislature to take into account the economic realities of the time; and

WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker signed the FY21 budget, knowing that it was $6.2 billion out-of-balance and was going to be funded by potentially $5 billion in borrowing from the Federal Reserve, $1.2 billion from imaginary "Fair Tax" revenue or additional borrowing, federal bailouts, and cuts by his administration; and

WHEREAS, In the middle part of FY21, the Illinois economy showed more resilience than was anticipated, causing the Governor's Office of Management and Budget, in November 2020, to revise their revenue estimates upwards by $2.25 billion, leaving a budget deficit of $3.9 billion; and

WHEREAS, In December 2020 at the direction of Governor Pritzker, the State of Illinois borrowed $2 billion through the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) at the Federal Reserve in an effort to close the budget deficit; and

WHEREAS, Now, well into FY21, Governor Pritzker has recently publicly submitted $700 million in cuts and efficiencies to help balance the deficit spending budget that he knowingly signed; the $2 billion in borrowing coupled with the $700 million in cuts leaves the FY21 budget at least $1.2 billion in the red; and

WHEREAS, In early January 2021, the Governor's Office surprised the General Assembly with a proposal to decouple from federal tax changes authorized under the bipartisan CARES Act, which would create a $500 million to $1 billion tax liability on small businesses; and

WHEREAS, The testimony on the floor of the House of Representatives indicated that the administration knew about the decoupling issue by at least October of 2020, despite the CARES Act becoming law in the spring of 2020 and several states taking action to decouple from these changes in the interim; and

WHEREAS, Updated revenue estimates by GOMB in April and November 2020 failed to capture the revenue loss Illinois would experience due to the tax changes in the CARES Act; and

WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker has made it clear that he believes that the wealthy, like him, should and want to pay more in state income taxes; the proponents of the so-called "Fair Tax", then, should perhaps be given the opportunity to nevertheless make voluntary contributions to the State of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, These donations from the generous and wealthy members of our state, like Governor Pritzker, could, indeed, go a long way in helping close the budget hole; and

WHEREAS, The State of Illinois currently does not have a mechanism by which Illinois residents can voluntarily make donations to the State of Illinois at the time of income tax filing or payment; and

WHEREAS, In order to allow proponents of increased taxation to have an opportunity to make voluntary tax contributions to the State, Governor Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Revenue should make an effort to explore options to implement a process by which taxpayers can make voluntary contributions to the State; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the Governor and the Illinois Department of Revenue to explore administrative or legislative options that will allow Illinois residents to voluntarily contribute any amount in excess of what they are required to pay the State of Illinois under Illinois income tax laws; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy be delivered to the Director of the Illinois Department of Revenue and the Governor's Office.