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The newest manifestation of the creepy desire of Springfield leftists to normalize deviance in children is the laughably named, “Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act” (SB 818)—a bill composed entirely of socially constructed leftist beliefs from leftist lawmakers aided and abetted by leftist pro-abortion and “LGBTQ” organizations.

SB 818 would require all public schools—including charter schools—to align teaching in grades K-5 on “personal health and safety” with “National Sex Education Standards,”  which too are leftist social constructions. And it would require all upper grade sex education to align with those same “standards.” Therefore, in order to understand what exactly Illinois children would be taught, Illinoisans must read—not just the bill—but also the National Sex Education Standards, which I did to save our readers time.

The bill also requires that all materials presented to K-5 students in health and safety units be “age and developmentally appropriate” and “culturally appropriate.” More on that shortly.

When the bill’s sponsor State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) was asked by State Senator Sue Rezin (R-Morris) for “the breakdown of what’s to be taught for second grade, fifth grade and eighth grade,” he responded,

In younger grades like kindergarten through second, the focus is on personal safety, what it means to be a good friend, and being able to talk to parents and trusted adults when someone wants you to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

He forgot to mention that since his bill would require all public schools that provide “personal health and safety” units in grades K-2 to align content with the “National Sex Education Standards,” by the end of second grade, students will be expected to “Define gender, gender identity, and gender-role stereotypes” and how those sex-based conventions “may limit behavior.”

They will also be expected to “Identify different kinds of families (e.g., … cohabitating … [and] same-gender …).”

This is the “breakdown” Villivalam provided for grades 3-5:

In grades 3 to 5, instruction continues to cover healthy relationships and safety, but also delves into what children at those ages are experiencing like the physical, social and emotional changes related to puberty.

Sounds innocent enough, except he conveniently omitted the following information, which comes straight from the National Sex Education Standards for “comprehensive personal health and safety.”

In grades 3-5, the National Sex Education Standards–and therefore Villivalam’s bill–would require boys and girls in co-ed settings to,

• “Explain common human sexual development including … masturbation.”

• “Describe the … potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender.”

• “Distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how they may or may not differ.”

• “Define and explain differences between cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender identity.”

• “Explain that gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum.”

• “Define sexual orientation.”

• “Differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Many parents would argue that it is not the role of government-employed “educators” to teach other people’s 8-11-year-old children about masturbation, hormone blockers for cross-sex identifying children, or gender expansiveness.

Remember, if this law passes, no school would be able to provide any teaching in grades k-5 on personal health and safety unless it included the information just outlined.

In 2020, Villivalam tried to pass the REACH Act, which would have required all public schools, including charter schools, to teach “comprehensive sex ed” in grades K-12. The bill failed, so that tricksy little devil rejiggered it in such a way as to get disordered, age-inappropriate material before innocent little eyes. He did that by requiring in SB 818 all “personal health and safety” teaching to align with the deviant National Sex Education Standards. Very cunning, indeed.

Villivalam then offered this skeletal outline of grade 6-12 teaching in response to Rezin’s question:

Then in 6th through 12th grade, sexual health education builds on previous lessons to continue discussions on personal safety, healthy relationships, identity, and begins to incorporate information related to sexual health.

Weeelll, that’s kinda, sorta what the National Sex Education Standards with which schools will have to align would require. I’ll try to slap some meat on those skeletal bones.

In grades 6-8,

• Students must be taught about intersex conditions.

• They must “Analyze how peers, family, and a person’s intersecting identities can influence attitudes, beliefs, and expectations about gender, gender identity, gender roles, and gender expression.

• Middle schoolers must “Recall the definition of sexual orientation and explain that most people have a sexual orientation.”

• They must “Define … bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, twospirit, asexual, pansexual.”

• They must “Define vaginal, oral, and anal sex.”

• They must “Explain there are many methods of short- and long-term contraception that are safe and effective and describe how to access them.”

• They must “List at least four methods of contraception that are available without a prescription (e.g., … condoms, emergency contraception, withdrawal)”

• They must “Describe … pregnancy options, including … abortion.”

In grades 9-10,

Students must “Define reproductive justice and explain its history and how it relates to sexual health.”

In grades 11-12, students must

• “Explain how support from peers, families, schools, and communities can improve a person’s health and wellbeing as it relates to gender identity and gender expression” and “sexual orientation.”

• Students must “Analyze” how “homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, classism” can “influence decisions regarding sexual behaviors.”

Supporter of this pernicious bill, State Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) pontificated foolishly in debate on the Illinois Senate floor:

I think what we are doing when we are teaching—again, age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education—to our children, we are arming them with knowledge. And I don’t know when that has ever been a bad thing.  (Watch the video recording of the Illinois Senate debate.)

When seeking to indoctrinate children with leftist sexuality dogma, leftists blather on about “age-appropriateness” and “cultural-appropriateness” as if those terms describe some objective, transcendent, universal criteria rather than socially constructed and imposed leftist “standards.” Both terms are used to include ideas leftists love and exclude (i.e., censor) all ideas leftists hate.

Some steely-spined lawmakers should demand from leftists specific definitions for those terms. They should demand to know who exactly constructed the criteria that define “age-appropriate,” “developmentally appropriate,” and “culturally appropriate.” They should ask if the age-appropriate criteria are objective and inarguably true or subjective and arguable.

Holmes claims she doesn’t know when knowledge has ever been a bad thing. Has she not read Frankenstein? Has she not heard of “gain-of-function” research?

If knowledge is never a bad thing, why not teach children about polyamory, zoophilia, or kink?

Oh, wait, I know. Those particular forms of sexual deviance are not age, developmentally, and culturally appropriate—according to mysterious leftist criteria.

While conservatives busy themselves dismissing the incrementalism of leftists in Springfield, leftists in Springfield busy themselves with incrementally imposing their screwball ethics, disordered beliefs, and deviant sexuality with the determination of arrogant authoritarians everywhere.

**UPDATE: The Illinois House passed this highly controversial proposal by a partisan vote of 60 to 48 on Friday afternoon (May 28, 2021). It will be sent Governor JB Pritzker for his consideration. (Watch the video recording of the Illinois House debate.)

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to Gov. Pritzker’s administrative staff to urge him to VETO SB 818 as a terrible overreach of government. Impressionable students in public schools should not be exposed to body- and soul-destroying messages that promote leftist beliefs about sexuality.

You can also call the Office of the Governor in Springfield at (217) 782-06830 or in Chicago at (312)814-2121.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SB818_House.mp3

Please consider supporting the good work of Illinois Family Institute.

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Our Springfield snollygosters are working tenaciously to provide Christian parents with a plethora of reasons to abandon government schools in Illinois. On Thursday afternoon (May 20th), the Illinois Senate took up and debated another “comprehensive” sex education bill (SB 818) that so-called “progressives” and their evil allies–Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Equality Illinois–are using to indoctrinate children starting in kindergarten.

This bill to corrupt children with leftist humanistic values is sponsored by Illinois State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) and passed by a partisan vote of 37 to 18 with four members not voting. It is now up for consideration in the Illinois House, where State Representative Camille Lilly (D-Chicago) is the chief sponsor.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state representative to ask him/her to vote against SB 818. Impressionable students in public schools should not be exposed to body- and soul-destroying messages that promote leftist beliefs about sexuality.

Background

The Illinois Senate debated this controversial legislation for almost an hour on Thursday afternoon. You can watch/listen to the entire debate on the IFI YouTube channel or on our newer Rumble channel. You can also watch the embedded version at the end of this article.

It was encouraging to see five conservative senators rise to question the sponsor and/or criticize the bill. Kudos to Illinois State Senators Sue Rezin (R-Morris), Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro), Darren Bailey (R-Louisville), Neil Anderson (R-Moline), and Jason Plummer (R-Vandalia) for boldly speaking against this terrible bill.

Regarding the hour-long debate, there are just too many fallacies, outright lies and corrupt intentions to address in one article. Here are just a few of the glaring problems.

State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Summit), a former sex education teacher, rose to ask the sponsor, “What’s the main goal of this bill?” Senator Villivalam responded:

The main goal is to insure that our youth have the opportunity to be safe and healthy by obtaining and having access to age and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate information and making sure that no one, no one, feels excluded in their classroom. No one feels excluded in their community.

Well, the bill also demands that comprehensive sex education classes be “culturally” appropriate, which the bill defines as follows:

“Culturally appropriate” means affirming culturally diverse individuals, families, and communities in an inclusive, respectful, and effective manner, including materials and instruction that are inclusive of race, ethnicity, language, cultural background, immigration status, religion, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and sexual behavior.

Culturally diverse and culturally appropriate? This Planned Parenthood legislation is neither inclusive nor respectful of orthodox Jewish, Christian or Muslim families. What families from these faith traditions deem to be “developmentally appropriate” is wildly different from what Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Equality Illinois celebrate and promote. This point is further illuminated by the floor statement made by State Senator Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago):

In my history, before I came here, I was a preacher, and I preached on a regular basis. When I looked at bills like this it was really, really hard for me to get my hands around it, because it was so contrary to what we teach in church. But this is a law this is not a church. And we are representatives of the people in our district. We are not their preachers. We are not their pastors. We are not the ones that’s gonna make them keep the values right or their morals right. 

I learned by being here that many of the things that we held true in the church was actually hurting our community. And I think not having that knowledge not letting those children have the knowledge about what this is [is not good]

…

I’m standing in support of this bill as a new Patricia, not the Patricia that came in here. Because the Patricia that came in here would have had a hard time even voting for it, more less standing up and saying ‘yes, these children need to know what’s happening to them.’

State Senator Van Pelt has been in Springfield since 2013, and by her own testimony, it appears she has been thoroughly corrupted by the Springfield swamp. The “new Patricia,” must have a heart of stone because she has repeatedly ignored the Holy Spirit’s promptings to do what is right. The “new Patricia” no longer has a problem upholding sexually corrupt material being taught to children.

It was also disappointing  to hear State Senator Doris Turner (D-Carlinville) assert that “families come in very different sizes and boxes and no one has the right to define what a family is and what a family should consist of.” As with “marriage,” the God of creation ordained family. It is He who has the right to define what a family is and what it is not.

Senators Van Pelt, Turner and many of their colleagues think that “knowledge” will solve the problems caused by a sexualized culture. State Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) even stated on the floor during debate:

I just don’t understand it, I think what we are doing when we are teaching–again, age-appropriate, medically accurate–sex education to our children, we are arming them with knowledge, and I don’t know when that has ever been a bad thing. 

Maybe Senator Holmes doesn’t remember, or maybe she was never taught the creation story. Genesis 2:15-17 tells us:

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Knowledge of evil is not a good thing. It leads to death. Comprehensive sex education as proposed by Planned Parenthood, et al. is evil. Exposing young, innocent and impressionable students to Planned Parenthood’s  view of “age appropriate” material normalizes early and high-risk sexual experimentation.

Perhaps the clearest denunciation of this atrocious bill came from State Senator Darren Bailey who rightly said it will put “perversion into our schools.”

I sat here and I listen to this, and I participate in what I expect to be a prestigious body. And here we are dealing with absolute nonsense of putting perversion into our schools. Yeah, that’s what it is, it’s perversion.

Thank God we still have some state lawmakers in Springfield with the moral clarity and backbone to boldly tell the truth about this insidious agenda to undermine and subvert Judeo-Christian values.

You can watch/listen to the entire 57 minutes here:

More info:

The War on Children [VIDEO]

Stop CSE Tools & Resources

Sign the Online Petition

A Plea to Exit Public Schools ASAP

Please consider supporting the good work of Illinois Family Institute.

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has filed an emergency rule to punish businesses that open to customers in defiance of his illegal lock-down orders. Violators could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which is a fine between $75 and $2,500.

Additionally, this emergency rule extends the governor’s emergency authority from 30 days to 150 days.

According to this online report by Amanda Vinicky, because “it’s classified as ’emergency’ in nature, the rule change took effect as soon as it was filed Friday.” State lawmakers sitting on the JCAR Committee will have to vote to reject the governor’s unilateral power grab. Without a tsunami of calls and emails, this order will be rubber stamped, possibly as soon as this Wednesday.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email to the 12 members of the JCAR Committee asking them to reject this confiscation of power.

More ACTION: Please also call the following committee members and leave a similar message:

Background

State Representative John M. Cabello (R-Machesney Park) issued a press release publicly objecting to this rule change:

We have a dictator Governor who is weaponizing our Department of Public Health to treat our citizens like criminals. The pure irony lies in the fact that the Governor is doing this at the same time that he is commuting sentences for murderers and rapists. The greatest danger today from the COVID-19 is the alternative universe that is being created here in Illinois.

People are resisting because they view the Governor’s Restore Illinois plan, and his general approach to the COVID-19 health crisis, as a hodgepodge of arbitrary rules and restrictions placed on citizens and businesses by a hypocritical leader. Recall the news stories about the Governor’s wife traveling to Florida while the rest of us are being told to lockdown. Now we are hearing that the Governor’s family has been up in Wisconsin too. In another case of irony those two states have been easing their restrictions.

I think our Governor needs to look in the mirror when he starts to criticize the people of Illinois for their lack of compliance and confidence in his approach to the COVID-19. Telling a family of four who just drove in the same car to the boat dock that only two of them at a time can be on a boat is not only stupid, it is just one example of things that undermine confidence in the way the entire issue is being handled. Perhaps the Governor should travel to Florida with his family next time and get some advice from their Governor.

It is imperative that Illinois citizens speak up loudly about this new rule that not only punishes working families but grants untenable powers to the governor.

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In a stunning display of ignorance, the Illinois State Senate just voted 43-12 in favor of the resolution to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment. What makes this vote even more enraging is that Republicans Pam Althoff (R-Crystal Lake), Jason Barickman (R-Pontiac), John Curran (R-Lemont), Mike Connelly (R-Wheaton), Karen McConnaughay (R-West Dundee), Chris Nybo (R-Hinsdale), Sue Rezin (R-Morris), and Tom Rooney (R-Palatine) voted with Democrats on this partisan resolution. (Updated at 7:30 pm)

According to Illinois Review, McConnaughay made this remarkably foolish and dishonest statement in defense of her traitorous vote:

The intention of the Illinois Senate Women’s Caucus is to advance legislation that supports, empowers and protects women of all aspects of life, and that’s exactly what we are doing today. Today, we are here together, Republican and Democratic women, to demonstrate our support of the Equal Rights Amendment, which ensures equality for all women…. This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s an issue that affects every single woman in this country. By coming together, we have a chance to make an impact at a national level for women all across the nation.”

Yes, nothing says non-partisan quite like a Constitutional amendment that will mandate taxpayer-funding of abortion, that will eradicate all abortion restrictions, that will end public recognition of sex differences in private spaces, and that will require women to register with the Selective Service.

Has McConnaughay read the ERA? It says nothing about women. So, where does she get the impression that the ERA will support, empower, and protect women? Of which specific rights does she believe women are deprived?

In a recent, almost-comical article on the ERA by Jennifer Camille Lee titled “Why does a hate group want to derail the ERA in Illinois,”  Lee provides ample justification for public mistrust of the leftwing press. Before getting to the ropy meat of her “argument” about the ERA, let’s peek at just one of her false claims.

Lee identifies Nancy Thorner as “a member of IFI.” Ms. Thorner is not now nor ever has been an employee of or writer for IFI.

After erroneously identifying Thorner as an IFI member, Lee paraphrases arguments Thorner made in pieces appearing in The Madison Record and Illinois Review after which Lee says, “any Illinois citizen or legislator who uses their [meaning IFI’s] arguments against the ERA is dealing in false facts and illogical arguments from a group that purposefully pushes a hateful agenda.”

To summarize, Lee uses arguments made by someone who is not an IFI employee and published in outlets wholly unrelated to IFI to suggest that no citizen or legislator should listen to IFI’s actual arguments about the ERA.

So, let’s carefully examine Lee’s arguments—you know, assertions with evidence—and her refutation of IFI’s  arguments. Oh wait, she didn’t have any arguments and she didn’t refute anything written by any IFI member. Well, what the heck, just for fun let’s look at her rhetoric.

Lee says that Thorner wrote a “scare piece” in The Madison Record. Since Lee provided no link, title or citation, I rooted around and found a recent letter to the editor by Thorner, which I assume is the “scare piece” to which Lee is referring. Lee claimed that Thorner said, “passing the ERA will create a gender-free society where it won’t be natural for women to be homemakers any longer.”

Thorner quoted from a document written about the ERA by constitutional attorney and fierce ERA-opponent Phyllis Schlafly in which Schlafly said this:

 Women’s Lib advocates do not want it to be considered any more natural for a woman to be a Homemaker than for a man to be a House-husband.

Who would disagree with that? Second-wave feminists inarguably sought to efface distinctions between men and women—well, except when they were claiming that women were far superior to men.

Lee repeatedly refers “readers back to the actual wording” of the ERA, which says that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Perhaps Lee didn’t notice that, while the ERA says precisely nothing about women, it does, indeed, guarantee a “gender-free society” if by gender, Lee means biological sex. You never can tell what those tricksy Leftists mean since they’re very busy redefining terms. It’s inarguable that the ERA makes it illegal to make distinctions based on sex. That’s the whole point and language of the ERA. Ergo, the ERA guarantees a “gender free society.”

Lee says that in a piece published by Illinois Review, “Ms. Thorner writes that women and all our unborn children will be irreparably harmed by the ERA.”

Evidently, Lee hasn’t read very broadly or deeply about the connection between the ERA and abortion. A court case in New Mexico, which has the equivalent of a state ERA, reveals the legal reasoning that justifies taxpayer-funding of abortion under the ERA:

The unanimous court held that a state ban on tax-funded abortions “undoubtedly singles out for less favorable treatment a gender-linked condition that is unique to women.

Taxpayer-funding of abortion—itself a grievous moral offense—will increase the number of abortions.

Moreover, as Elise Bouc, state chairman of STOP ERA Illinois has written, abortion restrictions will be overturned by the ERA, which explains why pro-abortion/anti-child organizations are fighting like the devil to get it passed:

Since abortion is unique to women, any attempt to restrict a woman’s access to abortion is seen, under the rules of the ERA, as a form of sex discrimination – because women are being singled out for a characteristic that is unique to them, and they are being treated differently based on that physical characteristic (in this case- the ability to become pregnant). Therefore any abortion restrictions would be overturned by the ERA…. In addition, since medical procedures unique to men are funded by Medicaid (such as circumcision and prostatectomies), then abortion which is unique to women, must also receive Medicaid funding under ERA requirements.

While Lee may consider the extermination of humans in the womb harmless, others beg to differ. There is no greater act of “irreparable harm” perpetrated against unborn children than killing them.

The ERA will inflict yet more damage. It will be used to grant unrestricted access to opposite-sex spaces and activities to persons who pretend to be the sex they are not. Single-sex restrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms, shelters, semi-private hospital rooms, nursing home rooms, dormitories, colleges, athletic teams, fraternities, sororities, clubs, and organizations would become co-ed or risk federal lawsuits. Even mother-daughter/father-son/father-daughter events at public schools would be eliminated.

The ERA would be used to force women to register for the Selective Service, and if the day should ever come when the draft is reinstated, to be drafted.

It would give enormous new powers to the federal government that now belong to the states. Section II of the ERA states that “The Congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article.” The ERA would give Congress the power to legislate on all those areas of law which include traditional differences of treatment on account of sex: marriage, property laws, divorce and alimony, child custody, adoptions, prison regulations, and insurance. For example, the Social Security System pays full-time homemaker “wives” 50 percent of their husband’s benefits over and above the check he receives. Upon their husbands’ deaths, widows receive the full benefits that their husbands had been receiving.  (The law also gives this benefit to a dependent husband, but nearly all dependent spouses are women.)

Lee believes that opposition to these changes–changes which harm women and children–is irrational. She also believes that IFI “may be entitled to an opinion, but they are not entitled to their own set of facts, and the fact is all the ERA does is grant equal protection to women under the U.S. Constitution.”

Like Lee, I will point readers and lawmakers back to the text of the ERA, which says nothing about women. It says everything, however, that lawmakers needed to know, which is that the ERA will eliminate recognition in laws, policies, and practices of the very real differences between men and women. And the victims will be primarily women and children.

This bill now moves to the Illinois House for consideration.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to email your state representative to urge him/her to oppose the ERA (SJRCA 4).

Here is the Illinois Senate roll call on the ERA:

Read more:  Please oppose ERA (SJRCA-4): It strengthens abortion rights

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ERA-Passes-Illinois-Senate_01.mp3

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Have you heard about the “Grand Bargain” that has been travelling the bumpy road of the legislative process in Springfield during this General Assembly session? Not surprisingly, it is neither a bargain nor grand for taxpayers.

Illinois Senate Minority leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) has been (or was?) working with Illinois Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) for a few months on trying to craft a budget that can pass.

There are conflicting reports about whether talks are still underway between the Radogno and Cullerton camps. There are not conflicting reports about the continuing Governor Bruce Rauner and Speaker Michael Madigan feud. Both sides are already blaming the other for the bargain’s failure.

Illinois has been without a budget for almost two years. What’s wrong with that? Many things, including what Illinois Senator Dan McConchie (R-Lake Zurich) has pointed out, “Every day we go without a balanced budget, the state debt rises by $11 million.”

That deserves a repeat: Illinois’ debt rises by $11 million every day we don’t have a balanced budget.

Another not-so-little problem are reports estimate that without action, the state could have as much as $15 billion in unpaid bills by July.

Doesn’t it make you proud to live in the Land of Lincoln? On that topic:

Illinois registered voters are divided over whether they’d like to leave the state or stay, according to the latest poll from the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Specifically, the poll found that 47 percent say they would like to move and 51 percent prefer to remain in the state. Just under 2 percent said they didn’t know.

It’s no surprise that taxes “are the single biggest reason” people want to leave.

The Illinois Policy Institute’s John Tillman recently noted that IPI “commissioned a poll that found that more than half of Illinois voters want lawmakers to balance the budget by only cutting state spending.”

With the help of our friends at the Illinois Policy Institute, let’s do a quick survey of some more of the unpleasant facts regarding Illinois’ fiscal state of the state.

Illinois Has Highest Overall Tax Burden in the Nation
A new report from WalletHub finds Illinois’ combined state and local tax burden is higher than that of every other state and the District of Columbia.

From the article:

Some state politicians want to make this tax burden even worse. The Illinois Senate is currently negotiating its so-called “grand bargain” budget deal, which includes billions of dollars in tax hikes for Illinoisans. Among the Senate’s ideas: a permanent 33 percent income tax hike, implementing a tax on sugary beverages, raising taxes on food and drugs, and expanding the sales tax to include previously exempt services.

The Truth About Your Property Tax Bill

From the article:

Illinoisans are struggling to pay the highest property taxes in the nation, and that’s largely due to unfair overspending in local governments.

How about those bloated and overly generous government employee pensions?

Interest on Illinois’ pension debt is $9.1B per year
A golden rule of finance is this: Debt that can’t be paid won’t be paid.

Just a few more:

Illinois Senate’s Spending “Cap” Doesn’t Protect Taxpayers, Core Services

From the article:

The Senate’s “grand bargain” contains a one-year spending “cap” that won’t improve fiscal responsibility. A real cap must come with structural spending reforms to return spending to a level that taxpayers can afford.

Lest you think it’s only income and property taxes being discussed:

Illinois Senator Pitches Expanding Sales Tax to Tattoos, Manicures and Pedicures, More

Illinois Pitches Sales Tax for Netflix, Spotify, Other Streaming Services

Ready for a silver lining (albeit a very thin silver lining)?

Six Illinois Republican state senators have pledged to not raise taxes:

Tim Bivins of Dixon
Kyle McCarter of Lebanon
Jim Oberweis of Sugar Grove
Dave Syverson of Rockford
Bill Brady of Bloomington
Sue Rezin of Morris

Take ACTION:  Please send a message to your state senator to urge him/her to reject any and all proposals to increase taxes in Illinois. Springfield lawmakers need to understand that state government has a serious spending problem, not a revenue problem. Moreover, they have proven to be utterly irresponsible with the billions of dollars in revenue they already receive; why should they be entrusted with even more?

Image credit: Illinois Policy Institute.

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How did they vote?

This afternoon, the Illinois Senate voted 39 to 11 with 6 voting present to pass SJRCA 75, a completely unnecessary proposal  to amend the U.S. Constitution to eradicate sex as a legitimate characteristic on which to base reasonable distinctions.

Click HERE to see how your state senator voted on this legislation, or look at the graphic below.  State Senators Pam Althoff (R-McHenry), Karen McConnaughay (R-South Elgin), and Sue Rezin (R-Morris) spoke against the bill.  Unfortunately, Republican leader Christine Radogno and Senator Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) voted in favor of it.

The bill now moves to the Illinois House where Representative Lou Lang (D-Skokie) is the chief sponsor.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email or a fax to your state representative. Ask him/her to please vote against SJRCA 75.  (If you have already sent an email to your state senator, please now send an email to your state representative.)