On Tax Day, April 15, the Illinois Revenue Alliance (of which The People’s Lobby is a member) brought more than 250 people, together to present lawmakers with a choice: they can either stand with their constituents as we fight to protect important public services from devastating budget cuts, or they can side with Trump and Musk’s pro-billionaire agenda.
Speakers from groups including SEIU HCII, One Northside, ICIRR, JCUA, and The People’s Lobby made the case that our communities shouldn’t have to fight each other for scraps, or choose between funding schools *or* health care *or* public transit. We can keep these vital programs running without placing the burden of funding them on the working class by raising taxes on corporations and the 1%, and by closing corporate tax loopholes.
“We as the Illinois Revenue Alliance have the solutions our legislators need to pass to fund these vital programs,” said TPL member Hannah Peterson, who emceed the event. “Illinois can be an example of democracy for the people and a beacon of hope for the rest of the country.”
This message hit extra hard as public transportation in our state moves closer and closer to the point next year, called a “fiscal cliff,” when our transit systems will run out of federal COVID-19 grants and be forced to make cuts. CTA, Metra, and Pace have said they’ll have to cut services by 40%, eliminating half of CTA bus lines and cutting all Pace bus service on weekends, if we don’t find a way to avert this funding disaster.
Lina Avalos, chair of The People’s Lobby’s environmental justice task force, talked about how frustrating it was to have to wake up three hours earlier than her friends in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods in order to get to school via public transit when she was in high school.
“Unfortunately, in the nine years since I began high school, transit has not gotten better,” she said. “We need to pass a progressive revenue package that includes funding for our public transit systems in order to create the world-class transit system that Chicago deserves.”
Elected allies including Rep. Will Davis, Sen. Robert Peters, Sen. Graciela Guzman, and Rep. Teresa Mah also spoke at the event, echoing our demand that Illinois legislators act boldly to protect our vital programs from corporate greed. They laid out some specific revenue solutions that the Illinois Revenue Alliance has identified to raise $6 billion per year in new revenue, including a tax on digital advertising that would raise $725 million. You can learn more about these proposed solutions here.