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Governor Blagojevich and the four legislative leaders need to hear that the state budget should be balanced without reducing funding increases for housing programs.

The out-of-balance fiscal year 2009 budget for the State of Illinois that was passed by the General Assembly just before their May 31 adjournment included a handful of important budget increases for programs creating affordable housing and ending homelessness, including $4 million in new funding for services in supportive housing and $1.66 million in new funding for programs serving unaccompanied homeless youth.

All the money from a fund dedicated to rental housing subsidies for extremely low-income households, the Rental Housing Support Program, was also finally allocated.

However, unless revenue is increased almost all of the new spending for fiscal year 2009 will have to be eliminated to balance the budget.

Our state government needs new revenue because of Illinois' long-term structural deficit. A structural deficit results when a tax system does not generate enough revenue to continue funding the current level of public services into the future, adjusting solely for inflation and population growth, so it grows with the economy and is not overly reliant on the poor and middle class for revenue.

Increasing the income tax in conjunction with the expansion of refundable credits and the dependent exemption, and the expansion of the sales tax base to include services are examples of the types of reforms that are necessary.

Please contact Governor Rod Blagojevich and the four legislative leaders—Senate President Emil Jones, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson and House Minority Leader Tom Cross—and ask them to work towards a budget agreement that has adequate revenue to keep increases in housing funding and other basic human needs in the state budget.

Your message will be sent to each of the following targets:

Representative Michael J. Madigan
Representative Tom Cross
Senator Emil Jones Jr.
Senator Kyle McCarter
Governor

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