It has again come down to a deadline. After two years of harsh fighting over a budget, I share the exhaustion, the worry and the outrage my constituents and their teachers feel as the governor has declared he will veto school funding. As with the budget impasse, this avoidable fight appears to be largely over marginal details.

At issue now is Senate Bill 1 – a long-in-demand reform of school funding that is the result of years of study, bipartisan negotiation and legislative trial-and-error in the General Assembly. I am a proud chief co-sponsor of Senate Bill 1 because it’s the closest we’ve gotten in more than 20 years to sending a bill to the governor’s desk to fix our abysmal funding model here in Illinois. Part of the budget agreement reached earlier this month hinged on such reform becoming law.

Senate Bill 1 ensures no school districts lose any funding, while also smoothing out the unfairness that has existed in the state’s formula for decades. That inequity has led to massive student achievement gaps and gross disparities in funding for school districts. It has led to students mere miles away from one another attending schools with facilities that seem like they are in different countries. How we can look students in the eye and tell them we value education under the status quo is a mystery.

Crain’s has declared Senate Bill 1 a necessary reform for Illinois schools. School superintendents across the state have given it their vocal support. And even Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he supports 90 percent of the plan, and publicly stated in a recent press conference that with only minor tweaks, it would be acceptable. Why he chooses to veto it rather than accept it as a compromise – arrived at after numerous rounds of bipartisan negotiation and with broad public support – is deeply frustrating.

I became chief co-sponsor of this legislation because I believe in fair funding for Chicago and for all Illinois schools. I urge you to learn more about the plan by visiting fundingilfuture.org, the website for the independent coalition of more than 200 superintendents and advocates who support school funding reform. And I also urge you to call Gov. Rauner’s office at 217-782-0244 and tell him to sign Senate Bill 1 when he receives it.

Earlier this month, I joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers to end two years of uncertainty, instability and damage to our state that have harmed the most vulnerable citizens. I voted to override the governor's veto and pass a complete, responsible and balanced budget. I want to take this opportunity to talk to you about what that means, now and going forward.

Nobody, anywhere, ever wants their taxes to go up. This was a hard vote, for me and for every member of the General Assembly, including the Republicans who did the responsible thing and crossed party lines to make this a balanced budget. Even with this tax increase, the budget makes $3 billion in cuts, including 10 percent to our state colleges and universities. Such a deeply painful set of measures are only necessary because the fiscal ship of Illinois has been sailing on stormy seas for decades. Governor Rauner has picked the worst time to starve our social safety net, our mental health services, our domestic violence shelters. To support these vulnerable Illinoisans, to save the state from junk bond status and to hold down our rising debt – all things that in the end would mean more burden for taxpayers in the long run – we took action.

A balanced budget is more than just a political talking point. It is a moral statement. It answers the question: What things – and whom – do we consider to be of worth, and what are we willing to do to pay for them? Governor Rauner's budget proposed $37.3 billion in spending, but included no revenue increase. In other words, he proposed a budget but had no true way to pay for it. The bipartisan plan I supported spends a billion less than the governor's plan, and $3 billion less than if we continued with no budget in place, as we have been doing since Governor Rauner took office. And it is fully funded. It's a balanced, honest budget.

The budget passed this month restores a portion of the income tax rate in effect from 2011-2015, and will go from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent for individuals, with a similar increase for corporate taxes. It contains spending cuts of $3 billion in several areas and closes numerous corporate loopholes. The budget will increase funding for K-12 education over FY17 levels by approximately $700 million, relying on a more equitable school funding formula that benefits low-income school districts like CPS.

That is to say, the budget both cuts spending and increases revenues. It does not privilege the rich over the poor, the corporation over the individual, or private sector largesse over real public needs like education.

Even with the increase, our average income tax rate will be less than Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky and Ohio. When held against other states, we are realistically neither a “high tax” nor a “low tax” state. And Illinois still does not tax retirement income or services, as the majority of other states do. We remain one of the few states with a flat tax – meaning a billionaire and a janitor both pay the same rate on state income taxes.

Some far-right ideologues repeatedly have stated that cuts alone could balance the budget. Perhaps they could if we were willing to throw the elderly off of Medicaid, the violent out of prisons, the promising but poor high school graduates out of tuition assistance programs. The majority of discretionary state spending goes to health care, social services, education and public safety. And polling conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute showed, definitively, that Illinoisans are not willing to short any of those crucial services. I think they don’t because they care about their fellow countrymen.

There are still hurdles to jump. School funding, under this plan, is contingent on the adoption of an evidence-based funding model like the one passed by the Senate earlier this summer. Governor Rauner has declared he will veto it, as he vetoed every other portion of this balanced budget, including the tax increase he once said he’d be willing to support.

Now, more than ever, I want to know your thoughts, your concerns, your stories. Please reach out to my office and follow me on Facebook and Twitter to stay informed.

State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins, 16th Illinois Senate District

Grieving families who might be unaware their departed loved one left them a life insurance policy would be protected by a stronger Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act under new legislation by State Sen. Jacqueline Collins and Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs that passed the Illinois General Assembly today.

“As our technology and our best practices are updated and improved, we need to consider how that can also improve our accountability to the taxpayer and the consumer,” Collins said. “Dementia might rob an elder of the memory of their insurance policy, and not every grieving family has somebody on retainer to keep such affairs in order. In an age when we can computerize and automate these matters, we owe it to them to make the effort.”

Enacted last year after collaboration between Treasurer Frerichs and Senator Collins, the Unclaimed Life Insurance Benefits Act requires insurance companies to check their policies against a state database to determine whether a policyholder has died, and then to take reasonable steps to ensure the beneficiaries receive their due payout. The new provisions would require companies to reach back into their records and check any lapsed policies back to 2000 to determine if policies were unpaid.

“In Illinois alone, hundreds of millions of dollars have been directly paid to beneficiaries as a result of insurance companies comparing their policies to the Death Master File,” Collins said. “That should show us that this is more than just a question of advocating for consumers. It’s just one way that state government should be fighting inequality in our society.”

House Bill 302 passed the Illinois Senate 36-19 today. It awaits the governor’s signature to become law.

State Senator Jacqueline Collins made the following statement after voting yesterday for a spending plan designed to break the destructive state budget impasse and fund crucial anti-violence measures such as afterschool and early childhood development programs, Teen REACH, and funding for universities and community colleges that also includes MAP grant funding:

“I acted today to do what my constituents and all Illinoisans have demanded: To bring an end to the disorder and negligence caused by the lack of a state budget. Government’s first duty is to safeguard all of its citizens,” Collins said. “In that duty, we have been irresponsible for more than two years. Now is the time to take responsibility. With each passing day, there are those for whom it will be too late. Now is the time for the House and for Governor Rauner to come together on a budget.”