‘Show some guts!’ protesters tell Ill. lawmakers in rallying for tax increase

‘Show some guts!’ protesters tell Ill. lawmakers

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Crying “Raise our taxes!” and “Show some guts!”, thousands of people rallied at the state Capitol on Wednesday to protest lawmakers’ inaction on a tax hike to fix a $13 billion deficit.

The secretary of state’s police estimated 15,000 people showed up, making it one of the largest rallies in Illinois Statehouse history.

Most of those participating in the “Save Our State” rally, organized by a coalition of more than 200 public-service organizations, marched in the streets around the Statehouse. They called for an income-tax increase to avoid deep budget cuts that would hit education, law enforcement and services for young children, the elderly, the handicapped and the homeless.

Legislators were in session at the time, even as hundreds finished the march by crowding into the Capitol, filling three floors of the rotunda.

“It gives me goose bumps,” said Lisa Lafrank of Collinsville, a second-year special education teacher who is bracing for a second round of layoff notices at her school district. “You realize there are so many other organizations facing the same cuts and have the same problem.”

Speakers at the rally pleaded for a House vote on a measure, approved by the Senate last year, that would increase the personal tax rate by two-thirds. House Democrats have been reluctant to vote on it without support from minority Republicans, who call for spending reductions.

Gov. Pat Quinn has offered his own tax proposal, calling for a one-third increase, but there is no sign that lawmakers are interested in voting on that idea either. Even if a tax increase were to pass, the deficit is so large that some spending and service cuts are likely.

Amid signs that read, “Cut the bull, not the budget” and “Wanted: Responsible legislators,” was 18-year-old Meliqua Page of Chicago, now a college student who has benefited from a youth homeless program that was cut by more than $1 million last year.

“We came out here,” Page said, “to show that the little people do matter.”

On the Net:

Save Our State: www.abetterillinois.com