Illinois General Assembly - Full Text of HR0121
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Full Text of HR0121  102nd General Assembly

HR0121 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY


  

 


 
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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has faced years of
3financial instability and mismanagement; years of routine
4promises made about grandiose spending plans that were never
5consistent with actual state revenues have resulted in budget
6deficits that have collectively culminated in the current
7bleak fiscal condition of the State of Illinois; and
 
8    WHEREAS, When crafting and subsequently presenting FY21
9budget projections, Governor Pritzker's administration
10consistently relied on fictional revenue to balance his budget
11proposals or highlight his spending priorities; and
 
12    WHEREAS, The Governor has a history of taking action to
13increase state spending by billions of dollars without
14offering or passing real and concrete revenue solutions to pay
15for them; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker's FY21 introduced budget relied
17on $1.4 billion in so-called "Fair Tax" revenues that, at the
18time, were not approved by the voters; adding to this budget
19deficit variable, the State and country were later impacted
20with the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused significant harm to
21the State's economy and revenue outlook; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, By May 2020, the majority party and the
2Governor's Administration were busy negotiating, discussing,
3and ultimately drafting the FY21 budget, which,
4unsurprisingly, relied on the ill-advised revenue projections;
5and
 
6    WHEREAS, Democratic members of the House and Senate passed
7a budget for Fiscal Year 2021 that, at the time, reflected an
8estimated $6.2 billion structural deficit, despite pleas by
9Republican members of the legislature to take into account the
10economic realities of the time; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker signed the FY21 budget, knowing
12that it was $6.2 billion out-of-balance and was going to be
13funded by potentially $5 billion in borrowing from the Federal
14Reserve, $1.2 billion from imaginary "Fair Tax" revenue or
15additional borrowing, federal bailouts, and cuts by his
16administration; and
 
17    WHEREAS, In the middle part of FY21, the Illinois economy
18showed more resilience than was anticipated, causing the
19Governor's Office of Management and Budget, in November 2020,
20to revise their revenue estimates upwards by $2.25 billion,
21leaving a budget deficit of $3.9 billion; and
 
22    WHEREAS, In December 2020 at the direction of Governor

 

 

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1Pritzker, the State of Illinois borrowed $2 billion through
2the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) at the Federal Reserve
3in an effort to close the budget deficit; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Now, well into FY21, Governor Pritzker has
5recently publicly submitted $700 million in cuts and
6efficiencies to help balance the deficit spending budget that
7he knowingly signed; the $2 billion in borrowing coupled with
8the $700 million in cuts leaves the FY21 budget at least $1.2
9billion in the red; and
 
10    WHEREAS, In early January 2021, the Governor's Office
11surprised the General Assembly with a proposal to decouple
12from federal tax changes authorized under the bipartisan CARES
13Act, which would create a $500 million to $1 billion tax
14liability on small businesses; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The testimony on the floor of the House of
16Representatives indicated that the administration knew about
17the decoupling issue by at least October of 2020, despite the
18CARES Act becoming law in the spring of 2020 and several states
19taking action to decouple from these changes in the interim;
20and
 
21    WHEREAS, Updated revenue estimates by GOMB in April and
22November 2020 failed to capture the revenue loss Illinois

 

 

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1would experience due to the tax changes in the CARES Act; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker has made it clear that he
3believes that the wealthy, like him, should and want to pay
4more in state income taxes; the proponents of the so-called
5"Fair Tax", then, should perhaps be given the opportunity to
6nevertheless make voluntary contributions to the State of
7Illinois; and
 
8    WHEREAS, These donations from the generous and wealthy
9members of our state, like Governor Pritzker, could, indeed,
10go a long way in helping close the budget hole; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois currently does not have a
12mechanism by which Illinois residents can voluntarily make
13donations to the State of Illinois at the time of income tax
14filing or payment; and
 
15    WHEREAS, In order to allow proponents of increased
16taxation to have an opportunity to make voluntary tax
17contributions to the State, Governor Pritzker and the Illinois
18Department of Revenue should make an effort to explore options
19to implement a process by which taxpayers can make voluntary
20contributions to the State; therefore, be it
 
21    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE

 

 

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1HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
2we urge the Governor and the Illinois Department of Revenue to
3explore administrative or legislative options that will allow
4Illinois residents to voluntarily contribute any amount in
5excess of what they are required to pay the State of Illinois
6under Illinois income tax laws; and be it further
 
7    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy be delivered to the
8Director of the Illinois Department of Revenue and the
9Governor's Office.