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 | 3 | | financial instability and mismanagement; years of routine | 4 | | promises made about grandiose spending plans that were never | 5 | | consistent with actual state revenues have resulted in budget | 6 | | deficits that have collectively culminated in the current | 7 | | bleak fiscal condition of the State of Illinois; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, When crafting and subsequently presenting FY21 | 9 | | budget projections, Governor Pritzker's administration | 10 | | consistently relied on fictional revenue to balance his budget | 11 | | proposals or highlight his spending priorities; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, The Governor has a history of taking action to | 13 | | increase state spending by billions of dollars without | 14 | | offering or passing real and concrete revenue solutions to pay | 15 | | for them; and | 16 | | WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker's FY21 introduced budget relied | 17 | | on $1.4 billion in so-called "Fair Tax" revenues that, at the | 18 | | time, were not approved by the voters; adding to this budget | 19 | | deficit variable, the State and country were later impacted | 20 | | with the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused significant harm to | 21 | | the State's economy and revenue outlook; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, By May 2020, the majority party and the | 2 | | Governor's Administration were busy negotiating, discussing, | 3 | | and ultimately drafting the FY21 budget, which, | 4 | | unsurprisingly, relied on the ill-advised revenue projections; | 5 | | and | 6 | | WHEREAS, Democratic members of the House and Senate passed | 7 | | a budget for Fiscal Year 2021 that, at the time, reflected an | 8 | | estimated $6.2 billion structural deficit, despite pleas by | 9 | | Republican members of the legislature to take into account the | 10 | | economic realities of the time; and | 11 | | WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker signed the FY21 budget, knowing | 12 | | that it was $6.2 billion out-of-balance and was going to be | 13 | | funded by potentially $5 billion in borrowing from the Federal | 14 | | Reserve, $1.2 billion from imaginary "Fair Tax" revenue or | 15 | | additional borrowing, federal bailouts, and cuts by his | 16 | | administration; and | 17 | | WHEREAS, In the middle part of FY21, the Illinois economy | 18 | | showed more resilience than was anticipated, causing the | 19 | | Governor's Office of Management and Budget, in November 2020, | 20 | | to revise their revenue estimates upwards by $2.25 billion, | 21 | | leaving a budget deficit of $3.9 billion; and | 22 | | WHEREAS, In December 2020 at the direction of Governor |
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| 1 | | Pritzker, the State of Illinois borrowed $2 billion through | 2 | | the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) at the Federal Reserve | 3 | | in an effort to close the budget deficit; and | 4 | | WHEREAS, Now, well into FY21, Governor Pritzker has | 5 | | recently publicly submitted $700 million in cuts and | 6 | | efficiencies to help balance the deficit spending budget that | 7 | | he knowingly signed; the $2 billion in borrowing coupled with | 8 | | the $700 million in cuts leaves the FY21 budget at least $1.2 | 9 | | billion in the red; and | 10 | | WHEREAS, In early January 2021, the Governor's Office | 11 | | surprised the General Assembly with a proposal to decouple | 12 | | from federal tax changes authorized under the bipartisan CARES | 13 | | Act, which would create a $500 million to $1 billion tax | 14 | | liability on small businesses; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, The testimony on the floor of the House of | 16 | | Representatives indicated that the administration knew about | 17 | | the decoupling issue by at least October of 2020, despite the | 18 | | CARES Act becoming law in the spring of 2020 and several states | 19 | | taking action to decouple from these changes in the interim; | 20 | | and | 21 | | WHEREAS, Updated revenue estimates by GOMB in April and | 22 | | November 2020 failed to capture the revenue loss Illinois |
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| 1 | | would experience due to the tax changes in the CARES Act; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, Governor Pritzker has made it clear that he | 3 | | believes that the wealthy, like him, should and want to pay | 4 | | more in state income taxes; the proponents of the so-called | 5 | | "Fair Tax", then, should perhaps be given the opportunity to | 6 | | nevertheless make voluntary contributions to the State of | 7 | | Illinois; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, These donations from the generous and wealthy | 9 | | members of our state, like Governor Pritzker, could, indeed, | 10 | | go a long way in helping close the budget hole; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, The State of Illinois currently does not have a | 12 | | mechanism by which Illinois residents can voluntarily make | 13 | | donations to the State of Illinois at the time of income tax | 14 | | filing or payment; and
| 15 | | WHEREAS, In order to allow proponents of increased | 16 | | taxation to have an opportunity to make voluntary tax | 17 | | contributions to the State, Governor Pritzker and the Illinois | 18 | | Department of Revenue should make an effort to explore options | 19 | | to implement a process by which taxpayers can make voluntary | 20 | | contributions to the State; therefore, be it
| 21 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE |
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| 1 | | HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 2 | | we urge the Governor and the Illinois Department of Revenue to | 3 | | explore administrative or legislative options that will allow | 4 | | Illinois residents to voluntarily contribute any amount in | 5 | | excess of what they are required to pay the State of Illinois | 6 | | under Illinois income tax laws; and be it further
| 7 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy be delivered to the | 8 | | Director of the Illinois Department of Revenue and the | 9 | | Governor's Office.
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