Fighting for a Responsible Budget in Illinois

April 23, 2010

Nearly 4,000 AFSCME activists led a crowd of 18,000 at a Responsible Budget Coalition rally to demand Illinois legislators restore funding to vital public services.

Tea Party who? If you want a genuine grassroots movement fighting for a good cause, you should’ve seen the thousands of AFSCME Council 31 members that descended on the Illinois State Capitol.

Spearheading a rally held by the Responsible Budget Coalition – an alliance of community organizations, labor unions and advocacy groups representing the state’s residents – nearly 4,000 AFSCME activists joined a 18,000-strong crowd in Springfield, Ill.

Their goal: Demand that legislators act now to raise much-needed revenues and close the looming $13 billion budget shortfall threatening Illinois’ vital public services, including education, child care, homecare for seniors and services for people with disabilities.

Council 31 is fighting so that the Illinois General Assembly passes a bill to raise revenues and fix the state’s budget woes. Although the state Senate already voted to this effect, members of the state House of Representatives are still dragging their feet.

AFSCME IVP and Council 31 Executive Director Henry Bayer summed up the rally’s message best when, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, he alluded to the state’s legislators:

“These 177 people who have a job don’t want to do their job. We’re here today to tell them to do their job!”

The massive rally – Springfield’s largest in over 25 years – garnered media attention nationwide.

Discussing the event on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show (see video), Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell commented favorably on the crowd’s timely chant of “Show some guts, stop the cuts”:

“I think there are progressives in this country who are way out in front of the politicians, and I love the fact that the Illinois protesters were saying, ‘Show some guts,’ because I think that’s exactly what we need to do.”

Meanwhile, a report broadcast by National Public Radio described the event as one of “the largest statehouse rallies in recent memory.”

For more information about the fight for a responsible budget in Illinois, see these reports from the Associated Press and NBC’s Today Show, and photo galleries from the Responsible Budget Coalition and the Chicago Tribune.