{"id":434796,"date":"2010-03-16T15:08:50","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T19:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/illinoiseducationassociation.org\/?p=6492"},"modified":"2010-03-16T15:08:50","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T19:08:50","slug":"state%e2%80%99s-women-leaders-urge-cooperation-revenue-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/434796","title":{"rendered":"State\u2019s women leaders urge cooperation, revenue reform"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

Cinda Klickna, IEA secretary\/treasurer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A group of female Illinois leaders are urging state legislators to pass a budget that does not unfairly cut social services around the state, an action, they say, will disproportionately harm women.<\/p>\n

Kathy Ryg, president of Voices for Illinois Children, presented at the Illinois Statehouse today a letter signed by more than 200 women leaders in Illinois urging legislators and the governor to cooperate with each other to find some funding solution that will better serve everyone in Illinois.<\/p>\n

\u201cA state budget is not just a set of numbers but a reflection of how we view our (people),\u201d she said, adding that in 2008, the child poverty rate in Illinois was at 17 percent. Due to the economic downturn, the poverty rate for the state\u2019s children is expected to jump to 22 percent by 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one in every five children in Illinois living in poverty,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cinda Klickna, IEA secretary\/treasurer, and Patti Hodges, IEA field services director, joined the group in addressing the state\u2019s financial situation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Patti Hodges, IEA field services director, right<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThis is not a responsible budget,\u201d Klickna told those gathered. \u201cWe are looking for money for education. We also realize that there is still so much more need out there. There are\u00a0programs being cut that our students rely upon.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that there is not a school district in the state that is not facing budget cuts this year, forcing teacher and support personnel layoffs as well as cuts in programs and the end of preschool programs.<\/p>\n

Other women, and female lawmakers, spoke about the needs of the elderly and the disabled noting that it\u2019s not fair for the state to try to make up for years of irresponsible bookkeeping by cutting services to those who are society\u2019s most needy.<\/p>\n

The group of women sent a letter urging Gov. Pat Quinn, Senate Pres. John Cullerton, House Speaker Mike Madigan, Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno and House Minority Leader Tom Cross to act now to pass a comprehensive tax reform package in HB 174 that would provide \u201cadequate revenue to vital services supported by the state of Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n

They asked leaders to put aside their differences, political agendas and to support tax revenue restructuring that will help Illinois crawl out of its budget deficit hole.<\/p>\n

In addition, they asked that anyone interested sign a petitio<\/a>n of support for their message.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cinda Klickna, IEA secretary\/treasurer A group of female Illinois leaders are urging state legislators to pass a budget that does not unfairly cut social services around the state, an action, they say, will disproportionately harm women. Kathy Ryg, president of Voices for Illinois Children, presented at the Illinois Statehouse today a letter signed by more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4159,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-434796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}