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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The General Assembly and the Governor have failed
3to enact a State budget for the last 20 months; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The State adds approximately 11 million dollars in
5debt every day that a budget is not signed into law; and
 
6    WHEREAS, The State has not met its contractual obligations
7to the numerous vendors that render services; and
 
8    WHEREAS, The Illinois Comptroller cites that the bill
9backlog continues to increase and is a crippling 12.6 billion
10dollars; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The State, its local municipalities, and their
12institutions continue to suffer from continual downgrades from
13all of the major credit rating agencies, which is nearing junk
14status; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The lack of a State budget has caused homeless
16shelters to close on Christmas Eve, youth violence prevention
17centers to go out of business, domestic abuse programs to be
18defunded, and a myriad of other essential human services needs
19have gone unfunded; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, The General Assembly and the Governor have not met
2their duty to fully fund the future of our State - the
3education of the children; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Teacher strikes, school closings, instructional
5time decreases, and faculty layoffs loom over school districts
6and institutions of higher learning across the State; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Like generations of Illinois students before
8them, thousands of current students continue to count on the
9funding of the Monetary Assistance Program to create promising
10futures for themselves and equal access to education; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Without the guarantee of those funds in-state
12students are seeking educational advancement outside of
13Illinois and over 16,000 thousand students migrated to
14out-of-state universities; and
 
15    WHEREAS, As economic development and opportunity in the
16State have become less available particularly to ethnic and
17racial minorities, Illinois has seen a historic spike in the
18murder rate; and
 
19    WHEREAS, For the 17th consecutive month, Illinois has had
20the highest unemployment rate among African Americans in the
21nation, nearing 15%; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Forty-four percent of African American young men
2in Illinois between the ages of 20 and 24 are unemployed and
3out of school; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Conditions are not improving for the middle class
5and poor citizens of our State during this historic budget
6impasse; people are hurting; therefore, be it
 
7    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL
8ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we wholeheartedly
9commit to enacting a State budget; and be it further
 
10    RESOLVED, That the Senate will desist from working on any
11non-essential State business until a budget is enacted; and be
12it further
 
13    RESOLVED, That we will dedicate all of the resources of the
14Senate to work toward a solution to the budget impasse; and be
15it further
 
16    RESOLVED, That any bill, initiative, or committee hearing
17not pertaining to the budget of the State of Illinois should
18not be advanced in a Chamber of the General Assembly until a
19budget is enacted.