SPRINGFIELD, Ill. –During the recently adjourned legislative session state Rep. Marcus Evans, D-Chicago, fought for progressive revenue reforms, criminal justice and gun control reforms, and a balanced budget that protects critical services.

“Each and every day my constituents are facing rising taxes and a criminal justice system that is broken and disproportionately targets the black community. These issues coupled with cuts to vital state programs and a tax system that is rigged against the poor and middle class has made it difficult for many residents of my district to provide for their families,” Evans said. “While we did not solve every issue facing our community, we have passed important reforms that move the state in the right direction and will make it easier for families in our neighborhoods to thrive.”

In order to combat the gun violence that has plagued our neighborhoods, Evans supported Senate Bill 337, which would hold gun dealers accountable to help ensure dangerous criminals cannot obtain guns.

Evans also supported a number of criminal justice reforms that work to stem recidivism and help ensure that released inmates have opportunities to thrive and avoid returning to prison. Evans supported House Bill 698, the Prisoner Entrepreneur Education Program which provide select inmates with practical business skills for use after release from prison. As well as Senate Bill 1607, which contains allows court services-approved treatment to count toward community service hours and requires individualized case planning for the IDOC’s reentry programming, with a focus on the final year before release.

“We need to get illegal guns off our streets and hold gun dealers accountable if they are selling guns to dangerous individuals,” Evans said. “However that is only part of the problem, violence and crime is a product of poverty and lack of opportunity, especially for individuals that have made mistakes in the past. That’s why these criminal justice reforms are so important in breaking the cycle of crime and providing rehabilitation and opportunity for those that have served their debt to society.”

Fighting to provide tax fairness for working families, Evans supported legislation that would offer relief to working families that would see their tax-burden raise drastically due to Donald Trump’s tax plan that amounts to a handout for the ultra-wealthy. Trump’s plan created a cap on the popular deduction known as the State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT).  The Evans-backed House Bill 4237 would have created an educational tax credit for taxpayers to help deduct their SALT while donating to public education. Additionally, Evans cosponsored and supported House Resolution 1025 which urges for the adoption of a “FAIR tax” or graduated income tax, requiring the ultra-wealthy to pay at a higher rate than middle-class families.

“Billionaires like Bruce Rauner and Donald Trump should not be paying taxes at the same rate as working families in my district,” Evans said. “By adopting progressive reforms we will have more revenue available for critical services, education, and will be able to provide tax relief to the working families that need it the most.”

Fighting to protect vital services that working families rely upon and to put the state on stronger fiscal ground, Evans voted to pass a bipartisan, balanced budget that funds critical services and continues to pay down the state’s backlog of bills, while not spending more money than the state takes in.

“We need to ensure that we are properly funding essential services like affordable child care, grants for low income college students, breast cancer screenings, and properly funding our school, while continuing to pay down the backlog of bills that more than tripled during Governor Rauner’s budget impasse,” Evans said. “I urge Governor Rauner to sign this bipartisan and balanced budget that continues to repair the damage caused during his impasse.”

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.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, provided the following statement upon the adjournment of the regular General Assembly session.

“In the era of Trump’s radical extremism, I resisted much of his agenda by pushing policies that do not pick winners and losers or pit the middle class against the wealthy, but instead lift up all of our communities and neighbors,” said Welch. “The middle class is the economic engine of our state, and I will not sit by and watch Rauner and Trump’s plans eradicate the middle class. The two have shown time and time again where their loyalties lie, and it’s not with us.”

“The balanced budget I helped pass today will do more to protect the middle class and most vulnerable, undoing the crippling cuts that Rauner made since becoming governor. Higher education will also receive its fair share in funding so our institutions can focus on attracting more students from across the country and world to come here and learn. $350 million new dollars will go to our colleges and universities, and this is exactly the sort of bipartisan work needed to move Illinois forward. I hope the past three years sunk in to the minds of my House and Senate colleagues, and especially the governor, as a lesson that people should never be second to political ploys and tactics used as negotiating tools. Rather, today should be the standard we use for the future to get our work done and put people first.”

During this year’s session, Welch worked to provide tax relief for the middle class by supporting a new fair tax for Illinois, which asks the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share in taxes and would begin to ease the income tax burden on middle-class families. Welch also worked to undue Trump’s middle class tax increase by supporting House Bill 4237 to create a workaround to the new limit on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. Welch’s proposal creates a new education fund where taxpayers can make contributions to public education and claim critical income tax deductions for their donations.

As Trump doubles down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric, Welch continued his efforts to establish greater protections for immigrants in Illinois and those seeking to come here. Senate Bill 35, the Immigration Safe Zones Act, requires the Attorney General to establish model policies that limit immigration enforcement. Welch’s further efforts to protect immigrants include Senate Bill 3488 to ban the state or state-funded entities from keeping or requiring any forms of registration on immigrants and their families as a registry.

“The assault immigrant families face on a daily basis since Trump has taken office is astounding,” said Welch. “After we enacted the Trust Act last year, Illinois has said ‘no’ to the out-of-touch extremism that Trump is pushing on the country with his hateful tone towards immigrants.”

Welch voted to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois and add constitutional protections for women to the United States Constitution. Illinois became the 37^th state to ratify the amendment and guarantee the same rights of men to women, outlawing any and all forms of gender and sex discrimination.

“This is an issue that should have been ratified back in the seventies, but I am glad to be a part of this fight today and continue the resistance against Trump,” said Welch. “As a father and husband, it is simply unconscionable for me to have more rights than my wife and daughter just because they are women. We live in a new era and everyone should be treated equally before the laws of our country.”

“In Illinois, there is still more work to be done on these issues and so much more. Keeping Illinois on the right track and sound fiscal footing remain a top priority,” said Welch. “I will continue working with my colleagues in the House and my constituents in my communities to make Illinois a better place for everyone.”

ROUND LAKE BEACH, Ill.  – State Rep. Sam Yingling, D-Grayslake, is continuing his efforts to offer relief for taxpayers by helping to pass a measure that would provide a way for taxpayers to work around local property tax deductions that were unfairly capped by Donald Trump and his allies in Congress.

“The middle class is under attack yet again by reckless Washington politicians more focused on giving tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy instead of providing meaningful tax relief to middle-class families,” Yingling said. “Under Trump and his Republican allies’ recently enacted tax plan, massive tax cuts for the rich were paid for by eliminating or capping the deductions that help middle-class families. The bill I supported in the House will help offset Trump’s decimation of deductions that working families have come to rely upon.”

Yingling’s House Bill 4237 passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House last week. Yingling’s measure will counteract Trump’s capping of the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction at $10,000 by creating a new state fund. Taxpayers can make a donation into the fund and in return receive a full state income tax deduction, making the measure revenue-neutral for the state. The donation would also be eligible for a federal charitable tax donation on federal taxes. Money collected into the fund can be used for public education purposes. The measure now awaits consideration the Senate.

“Trump’s tax plan balances unprecedented tax breaks for corporations and the ultra-wealthy on the backs of middle-class families,” Yingling said. “The tax proposal I helped to pass puts more money back in Illinoisans’ pockets. I look forward to continuing my work to push for bipartisan reforms like this bill that offers tax relief for everyday working people and families, not the billionaire class.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – A measure sponsored by state Rep. Michelle Mussman, D-Schaumburg, designed to defend Illinois taxpayers from increased tax rates passed out of the Illinois House.

“The federal government’s plan to give tax breaks to large corporations while loading the burden onto middle-class families is not an economically feasible proposal,” said Mussman. “Through the creation of the Illinois Education Excellence Fund, we will be able to better fund public education while also providing tax relief to local families.”

The Mussman-backed measure, House Bill 4237, adjusts the state income tax code to allow taxpayers to contribute to the Illinois Education Excellence Fund – a fund designated for public education expenses, including early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education and adult education.

Taxpayers would then be eligible to use those payments to qualify for tax credits, which can be applied directly to their federal income taxes, saving them money on their tax bill.

“As state Representative, my priority is the interests of the working families that I represent,” continued Mussman. “I think that it is a problem that the federal government has sought out tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, leaving middle-class families to foot the bill. I’m proud that Illinois leaders are doing their part to look out for the best interest of our residents.”

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, voted to protect Illinois residents from Washington politicians’ effort to slash tax credits for middle-class families and hand out tax cuts for the wealthy Wednesday. Halpin voted to pass bipartisan legislation ensuring middle-class families in Illinois do not see higher taxes as a result of Washington’s tax scheme.

“By slashing deductions for property taxes and other state taxes, Republicans in Washington are raising our taxes by thousands of dollars to pay for expensive handouts to their ultra-wealthy donors,” said Halpin. “Our tax laws should put middle-class families ahead of corporate special interests, the ultra-wealthy and the politically connected. That’s why it’s so important that we advance legislation like this that helps Illinois families keep more of what they earn.”

House Bill 4237 protects Illinois’ families from paying more in taxes as a result of changes at the federal level, including the capping of a key deduction that offsets the cost of property taxes. The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction was previously uncapped but is now limited to $10,000. Halpin’s measure offsets the cap by creating charitable funds that homeowners can write a check for their property taxes to, allowing them to continue to claim a full deduction.

“The SALT deduction is a critical deduction that many middle-income homeowners depend on to lower their taxes,” said Halpin. “Local families’ budgets are already strained; the last thing they can afford is the potential of more of their hard-earned money being taken to subsidize massive tax cuts for the wealthy.”