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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois is often regarded as having
3two distinct regions, the urban Cook County area and downstate
4Illinois; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Even communities north of Chicago are considered
6"downstate" because their needs, interests, economies, and
7cultures have more in common with rural southern and central
8Illinois counties than they do with urban Cook County; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The majority of residents in downstate Illinois
10disagree with urban Cook County on key policy issues; for
11example, 61 outstate Illinois counties, from the Wisconsin
12state line to the Kentucky state line, have approved
13resolutions to become sanctuary counties for gun owners, while
14the City of Chicago has some of the strictest gun laws in the
15country; and
 
16    WHEREAS, The divide between urban Cook County and the rest
17of Illinois is frequently manifested in electoral results such
18as the 2010 gubernatorial election in which the winning
19candidate carried only four out of 102 counties and, in fact,
20did not need to carry any other counties to win because of the
21margin of victory in urban Cook County; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Reynolds v. Sims
2(1964) removed the geographic element from districting for the
3state legislature, and, as Illinois' U.S. Senator Everett
4Dirksen warned, this caused power to be concentrated in
5Chicago and resulted in rural areas losing their voice in
6state government; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Article IV Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution
8guarantees a republican form of government, but the people of
9rural, small town and suburban outstate Illinois do not
10experience this; and
 
11    WHEREAS, This concentration of power in Illinois' largest
12urban area opened the door to extreme gerrymandering and
13further decreased the voice of outstate Illinoisans;
14gerrymandering has enabled one county, with 40% of the state
15population, to dominate the other 60%; and
 
16    WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 3(a) of the Illinois
17Constitution requires districts to be compact; both state and
18federal districts have shapes resembling snakes, dinosaurs,
19gloves, jaws, and a pipe wrench; this includes the "earmuffs"
20district, which The Economist called one of the "most
21strangely drawn and gerrymandered congressional districts in
22the country"; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Article I, Section 1 of the Illinois Constitution
2Bill of Rights declares that all men are by nature free and
3independent and have certain inherent and inalienable rights
4among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
5to secure these rights and the protection of property,
6governments are instituted among men, deriving their just
7powers from the consent of the governed; and
 
8    WHEREAS, The lack of representative government has
9decreased accountability, has allowed corruption to flourish,
10and has led to Illinois being rated the third most corrupt
11state and Chicago the most corrupt city in the nation; and
 
12    WHEREAS, This has led to the government of Illinois having
13the worst financial health of all 50 states, while giving the
14people of Illinois the greatest collective state and local tax
15burden of all 50 states, and because the General Assembly is
16dominated by one county, the people of downstate Illinois have
17experienced legislation, taxation, and regulation without
18representation; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Amendment XIV of the U.S. Constitution guarantees
20equal protection under the laws; and
 
21    WHEREAS, The City of Chicago is frequently treated as a
22separate region of the State and has often been exempted from

 

 

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1major legislative initiatives the General Assembly enacts into
2law because of this fact; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The divide between rural, small town, and
4suburban Illinois and the City of Chicago spans the 200-year
5history of the State, and there have been several attempts in
6the past to split Illinois into two states; and
 
7    WHEREAS, The City of Chicago passed a resolution in 1925
8to form the State of Chicago; and
 
9    WHEREAS, In 1971, West Central Illinoisans declared their
10region the "Republic of Forgottonia"; and
 
11    WHEREAS, In 1981, Democrat State Senator Howard Carroll of
12Chicago passed a Cook County state split bill through both
13chambers of the legislature; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Organizations, such as New Illinois, Illinois
15Separation, and The State of Southern Illinois, continue
16pushing for the formation of a new state truly representing
17the rural, small town, and suburban residents of Illinois; and
 
18    WHEREAS, In 2020, an advisory referendum for the creation
19of a new state appeared on the ballots in 22 counties and, in
20each county, won by a landslide of 70-80%; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution of the
2United States provides in part: "New States may be admitted by
3Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or
4erected within the Jurisdiction of any other state; nor any
5State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts
6of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the
7States concerned as well as of the Congress"; four states in
8the Union have been formed by this process, most recently West
9Virginia; therefore, be it
 
10    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
11HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
12we urge the United States Congress to take action to declare
13the 101 counties of outstate Illinois, along with outlying
14areas of Cook County wishing to be included, the 51st state of
15the United States of America and separate it from the rest of
16Illinois; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
18delivered to all Illinois constitutional officers, the Speaker
19and Minority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives,
20and the President and Minority Leader of the Illinois Senate.