During his 2026 budget address, Governor JB Pritzker declared that any budget requests must come with an accompanying cut. But when the proposed cuts include eliminating healthcare funding for immigrants and failing to adequately fund Illinois schools, it’s time to find a better path forward.
The Illinois Revenue Alliance, of which The People’s Lobby is a member organization, believes that revenue, rather than cuts, can fund our communities without increasing taxes on low and middle-income families. Along with our partners, we’re fighting to close corporate loopholes and tax the wealthy to improve Illinois for everyone. We have identified over $6 billion in new revenue solutions that the General Assembly can enact this year to resolve the projected shortfall and fund programs Illinois families need to thrive.
During our lobby day on February 26, Rep. Will Davis and Sen. Karina Villa joined the Illinois Revenue Alliance for a press conference, where we proposed a better approach to funding our state.
“We need to find a path for our families working day-in and day-out to make ends meet…Our billionaires have all these loopholes to make more money on the shoulders of us—on the shoulders of the working class. This has to stop,” said Villa.
“What you see represented here is not just new taxes, particularly not new taxes on hard working, everyday individual families. Corporate loopholes are not taxes,” said Davis. “Instead of the tax breaks corporations get to operate, we’re shutting some of those down.”
“If we’re going to cut the budget, why not cut the budgets of the tax breaks that we offer those who can afford their living expenses and whose businesses are growing?” he added.
At the press conference, TPL member Bruno Garcia spoke about how failing public transit changed his life for the worse. Though he’s been in recovery from addiction for more than a year, the two DUIs on his record and the expense of reinstating his license mean he has to get around without a car. But even in Illinois’ second largest city, he couldn’t rely on public transit to get to work or complete errands for his family.
“Getting caught in the rain with an armload of groceries because my bus got cancelled was bad enough, but the fact that I couldn’t take a second-shift job because Aurora didn’t have a bus any later than 7:10 pm threatened my ability to feed myself,” he said.
If the state doesn’t pass the Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act, the transit agencies of Northwestern Illinois could face service cuts of up to 40%. State spending cuts could jeopardize public transit funding—making it even harder for Illinoisans to get to school and work.
“Every year, organizations like the ones in this room come down to Springfield to fight each other for scraps. But our communities shouldn’t be forced to choose whether we’re going to fund health care, transit, or education,” said Garcia. “We can have all of these things as long as we build the political will to generate new revenue by taxing corporations and the rich.”
Elsewhere in the Capitol building, TPL members held meetings with 12 state legislators about supporting bills they will likely vote on this session, including the:
- Funded Advocacy and Independent Representation Act (HB5842) will create a statewide office of public defense and ensure all Illinoisians have access to quality legal representation. For decades, Illinoisans who cannot afford an attorney have had their right jeopardized by understaffed and overwhelmed public defender offices.
- Metropolitan Mobility Authority Act (SB3936), which will combine the Chicagoland area’s long-siloed public transit agencies into a unified, effectively coordinating system and secure an extra $1.5 billion in funding to expand service.
- Improve Network Adequacy and Access for Behavioral Health Bill (HB1085), which will require private insurance corporations to pay behavioral health providers the same rates as primary care providers. Right now, private insurance companies pay therapists, psychologists, and social workers abysmal rates, which prevents them from taking our insurance and forces us to pay out of pocket or skip getting care.
