Occupy Elgin will meet on Saturday, April 16th at the intersection of Kimball Street and Grove Avenue in Elgin from 1:00 PM till 2:00 PM. Please join us!
We will hold signs calling for an end to the budget impasse in Springfield. Below is the text of the flyer we will distribute.
End Illinois Budget Impasse!
The budget impasse in Springfield is causing great suffering throughout Illinois. Services to people with disabilities, people with mental health needs, the elderly, students, and the hungry are being severely cut because Illinois has no money available to pay for these services. . The governor refuses to negotiate with the legislature unless they accept his agenda stripping workers of their collective bargaining rights.
The governor is wrong in his call for a “turnaround agenda” in Illinois. He claims that by destroying the power of unions, he will make Illinois more attractive to investors who will then move their business here, bringing jobs. He claims Illinois has no money, so he must severely cut state spending. This is an austerity agenda.
Illinois has no money because, for decades,
under the leadership of both parties, it has
refused to fairly tax corporations and our wealthiest citizens. Our “flat tax” system results in the poor and the middle class paying state taxes at far higher rates than the top one per-cent. Meanwhile two-thirds of Illinois corporations pay no taxes whatsoever. This is wrong.
1) We need unions to protect and improve wages and working conditions for everybody. The growth of unions was a major cause of the rise of the American middle class in the 20th century. The decline of unions hurts us all.
2) We need a state-level hike in the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour.
3) We need to close tax loopholes and force corporations to pay taxes in Illinois.
4) We need the LaSalle Street Tax which would place a tiny tax on transactions at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange. This would bring in
billions of dollars of revenue to end Illinois’s budget deficit.
We need a constitutional amendment that would
allow Illinois to introduce a graduated income tax. That would require wealthy people to pay tax at a higher rate per household than poor and middle class people.
Please call Governor Bruce Rauner 217-782-6830 and tell him to stop attacking unions, drop his “turnaround agenda,” and begin negotiating in good faith with the legislature.
Please call your State Senator and your State Representative and ask them to pass the measures cited above. Call 217-782-3944 and ask them to give you the phone number for your lawmakers.