We are extremely pleased that the state budget impasse has been resolved now that the House and Senate successfully overrode Governor Rauner’s vetoes of the spending, revenue and budget implementation legislation (Senate Bill 6, Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 42, respectively) that were previously approved by the General Assembly. The budget that is now in effect relies on a mix of spending cuts and revenue increases.
It will take a long time for the State of Illinois to recover from the negative impact of the impasse, including, but not limited to, the harm caused to people experiencing homelessness who struggled to find help after service providers closed their doors, laid off staff and/or reduced the services they provided.
We thank all our members and allies who joined us in advocating for an end to the impasse and all the nonprofit agencies who struggled to continue to provide housing, shelter and supportive services during the last two years.
We also thank all the state legislators—Democrat and Republican-—who worked to end the impasse by supporting a tax increase. Click here to see how your State Representative voted on the override of the veto of the revenue bill and click here to see how your Senator voted. Please use the Responsible Budget Coalition toll free number, (855) 334-6885, to call House members who voted yes to express thanks for increasing revenue and ending the impasse.
The line items we advocate for in the Illinois Department of Human Services budget were either flat funded or received a modest increase. There were also “fund sweeps” from certain housing-related dedicated state funds that will go towards paying off the backlog of unpaid state bills.