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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois is often regarded as having
3two distinct regions, the City of Chicago and downstate
4Illinois; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Even communities north of Chicago are considered
6"downstate" because they have more in common with rural
7southern and central Illinois counties than they do with the
8City of Chicago; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The divide between the City of Chicago and
10downstate Illinois is frequently manifested in electoral
11results such as the 2010 gubernatorial election in which the
12Democrat candidate won the election despite only carrying four
13counties out of 102 counties, and, in fact, did not need to
14carry any other counties to win because of the margin of
15victory in Chicago and Cook County; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The City of Chicago is frequently treated as a
17separate region of the State and has often been exempted from
18major legislative initiatives the General Assembly enacts in
19law because of this fact; and
 
20    WHEREAS, The City of Chicago is often bailed out by
21taxpayers in the rest of the State, such as the $221 million

 

 

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1bailout for the CPS pension system that was signed into law
2last year; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Numerous counties in the southern and central
4parts of Illinois are approving resolutions to become sanctuary
5counties for gun owners, while the City of Chicago has some of
6the strictest gun laws in the country; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The majority of residents in downstate Illinois
8disagree with City of Chicago residents on key issues such as
9gun ownership, abortion, immigration, and other policy issues;
10and
 
11    WHEREAS, The dissension between downstate Illinois and the
12City of Chicago spans the nearly 200-year history of the State,
13and there have been several attempts in the past to divide
14Illinois into two states; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The City of Chicago passed a resolution in 1925 to
16form the State of Chicago; and
 
17    WHEREAS, Western Illinoisans declared their region as the
18"Republic of Forgottonia"; and
 
19    WHEREAS, In 1981, State Senator Howard Carroll passed a
20Cook County state split bill through both chambers of the State

 

 

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1Legislature; and
 
2    WHEREAS, There continue to be organizations pushing for
3separation between the City of Chicago and downstate Illinois
4such as the "Southern Illinois Secession Movement"; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Separation of states continues to be a focus in
6the news media as there is a movement in California to divide
7that state into multiple states; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution of the
9United States provides in part: "New States may be admitted by
10Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or
11erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any
12State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts
13of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the
14States concerned as well as of the Congress."; therefore, be it
 
15    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
16HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
17we urge the United States Congress to take action to declare
18the City of Chicago the 51st state of the United States of
19America and separate it from the rest of Illinois; and be it
20further
 
21    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be

 

 

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1delivered to all Illinois constitutional officers, the Speaker
2and Minority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives,
3and the President and Minority Leader of the Illinois Senate.