Illinoisans need you to ‘Trump-proof’ our state by securing the revenue required to protect public education at every level, health care, housing, access to food and other state programs and public services.

While a majority of Americans can’t afford a $1,000 emergency, the most recent GOP tax cuts transfer funds dedicated to Medicaid, SNAP, and public services, and instead increase funding for federal enforcement agencies like ICE, while also delivering a massive windfall of tax breaks for the top 5% of high-income earners.

Under the Trump tax breaks, those making over $1 million a year will receive the biggest windfall, $114 billion in 2027 alone. The Washington Post is reporting that billionaires are requesting to be taxed because they do not want to benefit from such ‘imbalance’ while others suffer.

We urge you to counter the Trump tax giveaway through state policy that makes the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share.

With that revenue, Illinois could fully fund many of the public services and institutions our families rely on, including our entire education system from pre-K to PhD. We could dramatically lower class sizes in K-12 classrooms, ensure all students have access to mental health practitioners, strengthen our public universities and make them more affordable for students, and preserve healthcare for hundreds of thousands of working people in our state.

Just as some states are collaborating to fill gaps created by the federal government such as vaccine guidance and public health standards, we ask you to collaborate with us to develop and advance legal and moral approaches to return our tax dollars to the services and needs of your constituents.

Massachusetts' early results from its millionaire’s tax demonstrate that addressing wealth inequality can be a simple, effective, widely supported, and transformative way to close budget gaps caused by state systems that privilege the wealthy and have been made worse by Trump’s cuts. Some of the poorest states in the country are using investment, not austerity, in this moment to address the impact of federal cuts, alongside lawsuits and publicly voiced opposition. With the full scope of the federal agenda coming into focus, every state will need to do even more. Illinois can and should lead.

In addition to drafting a state budget to be based on the ultra-wealthy paying their fair share, the people of Illinois must also ask the question of whether we are expected to pay for our own hostile occupation. Federal occupation of our cities not only disrupts the local trend of reducing crime and increasing safety. Reinvesting public funds into military deployments estimated to cost billions this year alone devastates public trust, physically harms our communities, violates basic constitutional principles, and exposes constituents to very real danger and violence at the hands of federal agents.

As the federal government increasingly uses state-generated revenue for direct and indirect harm, it would be within the tradition of this country to revisit the question of “taxation without representation.”

Our schools and universities, state programs, health care systems, and safety net services would not be in this dire situation if the wealthiest in our state paid their fair share and if the federal government prioritized human needs over its authoritarian agenda.

We urge you to secure the revenue that was promised and is needed to fund children’s education and the needs of Illinois families. Illinois can be a beacon for the rest of the country if we act quickly and decisively to prioritize people over profits and protect the most vulnerable.