Bill Text: IL HJR0015 | 2021-2022 | 102nd General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Urges the Governor's Office of Management and Budget to enter into conversations with the financial institutions that serve as bond underwriters for the State and demand that they offer the State long-term loans with terms of up to 30 years to meet all of its borrowing needs without charging any interest or fees. Urges the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States to offer long-term loans with terms of up to 30 years to meet all of the borrowing needs of all state and local governments and government units in the United States without charging them any interest or fees.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-07-18 - Rule 19(b) / Re-referred to Rules Committee [HJR0015 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2021-HJR0015-Introduced.html

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HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The COVID-19 pandemic has created a crisis more
sudden and far more dramatic than any previously in history;
and
WHEREAS, In a period of just a year, the COVID-19 pandemic
has infected more than 25 million people and caused the death
of more than 450,000 people in the United States; and
WHEREAS, The COVID-19 pandemic has forced state and local
governments to shut down businesses for weeks, even months, to
protect everyone's health, with tens of millions of people
losing their jobs within a period of weeks and millions more
underemployed; and
WHEREAS, The COVID-19 pandemic continues to constitute an
emergency that places essential workers at high risk for
contracting the virus; public sector employees, such as first
responders, public health staff, sanitation workers, and
safety net enrollment staff, are among the many public
employees saving lives, keeping communities safe, and ensuring
that families have access to healthcare and food and roofs
over their heads; and
WHEREAS, State and local governments are facing staggering

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budget shortfalls as economic contraction has reduced nearly
all forms of government revenues, with the prospect of severe
cuts to public services, painful layoffs, and austerity
measures on the horizon that will disproportionately impact
Black, Brown, and Indigenous workers and communities; and
WHEREAS, State and local governments are unable to predict
the true scale of declining revenues as costs rise sharply
from business closings and rampant unemployment; and
WHEREAS, The public health and economic crises caused by
the pandemic demand a robust safety net and the expansion of
public services; and
WHEREAS, The imposition of austerity measures and service
cuts will not only greatly increase the suffering of
communities and families but it will also prolong our recovery
and roll back advances we have made in creating more equitable
communities for residents; and
WHEREAS, The recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will be
uneven and disastrous without reprioritization of our local
budget; and
WHEREAS, State and local governments across the country
pay an estimated $160 billion annually in interest payments on

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public debt, hindering governments' ability to provide
critical services and meet community needs; and
WHEREAS, Illinois spent $1.7 billion on interest payments
on debt during the last fiscal year; and
WHEREAS, These high-interest payments that are intended to
compensate creditors for the risk that borrowers will default
on their debts have become a major drain on public budgets; and
WHEREAS, The risk of state and local governments and
government agencies defaulting on their debts is virtually
nonexistent because debt payments take priority over almost
all other government expenses, and history shows that
municipal borrower default rates are less than 0.2 percent;
and
WHEREAS, Despite these extremely rare defaults, credit
rating agencies give municipal borrowers lower credit ratings
than corporations with riskier credit profiles, thereby
forcing them to pay unreasonably high interest rates; and
WHEREAS, Credit rating agencies give municipal borrowers
with larger concentrations of people of color lower credit
ratings; and

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WHEREAS, The Wall Street banks that underwrite the
municipal bonds have rigged the rules to maximize profits; and
WHEREAS, Wall Street banks have a long history of
targeting municipal borrowers with fraudulent practices and
predatory forms of debt, of repeatedly breaking federal and
state antitrust and securities laws, and of defrauding
municipal borrowers with misleading information to pad their
own bottom line; and
WHEREAS, Many of the bondholders profiting off the
interest from municipal bonds are the same wealthy investors
who do not pay their fair share in taxes; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the Governor's Office of
Management and Budget is urged to enter into conversations
with the financial institutions that serve as bond
underwriters for the State and demand that they offer the
State long-term loans with terms of up to 30 years to meet all
of its borrowing needs without charging any interest or fees;
and be it further
RESOLVED, That we urge the Federal Reserve Bank of the
United States to offer long-term loans with terms of up to 30

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years to meet all of the borrowing needs of all state and local
governments and government units in the United States without
charging them any interest or fees.