The Illinois General Assembly’s spring session came to an end late at night on May 31st. Working tirelessly within multiple coalitions, we made several trips to Springfield to advance workers’ rights, keep pushing toward a fairer justice system, and pressure lawmakers to fund our programs by taxing corporations and the very rich. It’s absolutely clear that our persistent presence moved the needle and pushed our state in the right direction.
Still, as always, we’ve got more work to do.
First, the good news:
- The Rideshare Drivers’ Union Bill (sponsored by State Sen. Ram Vilivalam and State Rep. Yolonda Morris) passed! This victory was possible because drivers organized for years with The People’s Lobby at the city level, fighting for living wages and safety before transitioning to a statewide union campaign. With our partners in the Illinois Drivers Alliance, thousands of drivers showed up in force at the Capitol this spring to share stories of low pay, unsafe conditions, unjust deactivations, and the struggle to support their families while Uber and Lyft made billions, resulting in legislation that paves the way for the 100,000+ rideshare drivers in Illinois to form a union.
- The budget includes $1.5 million in new funding to extend the Pretrial Success Pilot Program so we can keep demonstrating that, with a little support, people can make their court dates without having to sit in jail while awaiting trial. We will continue to fight for the funding we need to expand this program statewide in future sessions, but this is a big step in the right direction.
- We passed the Digital Ads Tax (sponsored by State Sen. Robert Peters and State Rep. Norma Hernandez)! Though we won’t see this money this fiscal year, this legislation will bring in more than $1 billion per year by taxing the big tech corporations that profit from selling our data and running online ads–a massive revenue stream that, until now, provided pure, tax-free profit for companies like Meta and Amazon.
Next, the not-as-good news:
- Despite passing the Digital Ads Tax, this budget is not strong enough to prevent the harmful reductions to critical services that HR1 (Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill) will cause this year and next year in Illinois. Nearly $3 billion in combined revenue from ILRA’s full proposal to decouple our state from Trump’s cuts, enact a billionaire wealth tax, and tax offshore profits were left out of the final budget.
- Our legislators chose not to exercise their full power to decouple our state from Trump’s tax cuts.
This budget session was a test of political priorities, and too many programs and services that need progressive revenue to survive and thrive remain underfunded. Still, the billion dollars in progressive funding we secured by passing the Digital Ads Tax this session almost doubles the amount of revenue we’ve created in the ten years since we made closing corporate tax loopholes a core part of our mission as an organization, and that’s a real win worth celebrating!
We couldn’t have made this progress without the hundreds of members who risked arrest at our Amazon and Target actions, contacted your legislators in-district, or came to Springfield with us this session to fight for what we need and deserve! We also thank the legislators in the Affordability and Tax Justice Coalition, who helped us advance our revenue bills from the inside. This win belongs to all of us.
