Lilly Highlights Progressive Agenda, Balanced Budget as Spring Session Ends

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Following the adjournment of the legislative session on Thursday, state Rep. Camille Y. Lilly, D-Chicago, is highlighting her progressive agenda to lift up middle class families in Illinois.

“The legislature approved a balanced budget that cuts state bureaucracy while investing in the services important to our communities, including schools, universities and colleges, affordable child care, in-home care for senior citizens and domestic violence programs,” said Lilly. “This bipartisan budget begins to repair the damage caused over the last three years by Governor Rauner and his budget impasse that tripled the state debt and slashed vital programs in our community. Our plan does not include any new taxes and affords us the ability to responsibly pay down some of the state’s old bills.”

Following last year’s historic education funding formula reform bill, Lilly continues to fight to improve community schools, provide better resources to student’s mental and social well-being, and reduce local school districts’ reliance on property taxes to provide middle-class families with property tax relief. Lilly has also been fighting to democratize the Chicago Public Schools’ school board, which remains the only school district in Illinois whose members are unelected and are instead appointed by the mayor.

“The education funding reform that we passed last summer is bringing more state money to CPS, but we cannot just stop there and say ‘mission accomplished,’ because education is our number one priority,” said Lilly. “The CPS board should listen to parents and students directly, and that will be an ongoing fight until people can choose community leaders to modernize CPS.”

In an effort to continue providing relief for middle class families, Lilly backed House Resolution 1025 to urge Illinois to adopt a fair tax structure. The proposal suggests eliminating the current flat and regressive tax that unduly burdens middle-class families and asking the wealthiest in Illinois to start paying their fair share.

After Trump’s tax plan took effect late last year, critical tax deductions that the middle class relied on were cut, once again allowing the wealthiest to benefit from tax policies above the middle class. Lilly backed House Bill 4237 to allow residents to donate to a charity fund to claim additional income tax deductions.

“The president and this administration’s policies are not fair to people,” said Lilly. “The two are most concerned about increasing the amount of money they have but not ordinary taxpayers. The president’s tax plan eliminated tax deductions for the middle class which makes more of their income taxable and resulting in paying more taxes, whereas Trump and the wealthy don’t feel that. The middle class cannot afford huge tax hikes that pay for tax cuts that only the wealthy enjoy.”