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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives recognize that there are distressed counties
4and communities throughout Illinois that struggle with many
5economic and social problems, including crime, unemployment,
6poverty, mortgage foreclosures, declining property values,
7deficiencies in public health services, and deficits in public
8education; and
 
9    WHEREAS, In recent years, these economic and social
10problems have become more prevalent and have exacerbated
11existing conditions, which include inequalities in access to
12justice in the civil court system, an overburdened and
13ineffective criminal justice system, overcrowded correctional
14facilities, increased homelessness, inadequate educational
15opportunities, insufficient affordable housing, inadequate
16delivery of social services to the less fortunate, and
17deficiencies in the availability and quality of public health
18services; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Some counties and communities disproportionately
20experience these serious social and economic ills; for example,
21Illinois counties which had 16% or more of their population in
22poverty in 2010 include Alexander, Champaign, Coles, Cook,
23Franklin, Gallatin, Hardin, Jackson, Lawrence, McDonough,

 

 

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1Macon, Marion, Massac, Perry, Pike, Pope, Pulaski, Saline,
2Union, Vermilion, White, Williamson, and Winnebago;
3municipalities with a population of over 100,000 which had
4family poverty rates of 10% or more are Aurora, Chicago,
5Joliet, Naperville, Peoria, Rockford, and Springfield; and
 
6    WHEREAS, It is important to take a comprehensive approach
7to the ongoing crisis of distressed counties and communities in
8Illinois; a significant poverty rate is among the best
9indicators that a community is in distress; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Care must be taken when addressing poverty and its
11associated problems in counties with distressed communities
12because an emphasis on serving the largest number of people in
13poverty will miss other areas of the State with significant
14poverty problems; and
 
15    WHEREAS, An emphasis on areas with the highest rates of
16poverty will ignore large populations in need; for example,
17Cook County has the highest number of persons living in
18poverty, totaling nearly 50% of the State's poverty population,
19but DuPage County, which has historically been considered to be
20a wealthy county with a small low-income population, has the
21second-highest number of persons in poverty; the 10 poorest
22counties in Illinois, as measured by poverty rate, are
23generally downstate, with small total populations, and while

 

 

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1their poverty rates are very high (the highest county rate is
231.1%, with an average for all 10 of the poorest counties of
321.6%), these counties collectively account for less than 10%
4of the State's total poverty population; the 10 counties with
5the highest numbers of persons in poverty are, for the most
6part, near urban centers, with 5 in the Chicago metropolitan
7area; these 10 counties include over 70% of the State's poverty
8population; and
 
9    WHEREAS, A state-wide emphasis on the top 10 counties with
10high poverty rates will ignore the needs of 94% of the State's
11poverty population, but an emphasis on the 10 counties with the
12highest numbers of people in poverty will deemphasize the
13counties with the highest poverty rates; and
 
14    WHEREAS, On September 12, 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau
15announced that, in 2011, the median household income in the
16United States declined by 1.5% from the 2010 median, which was
17the second consecutive annual drop; the weighted average
18poverty threshold for a family of four in 2011 was $23,021; the
19nation's official poverty rate was 15%, with 46.2 million
20people in poverty; although the poverty rate and number of
21people remained statistically unchanged since 2010, this is the
22fourth year in a row with such significant amounts of poverty
23in the nation; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In 2011, the poverty rate in Illinois was 14.2%;
2this amounts to a 42% increase in the poverty rate in Illinois
3from 2007 to 2011; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Living in an area with a high poverty rate may
5include threats to life itself; for example, a recent
6comparison of the 5 poorest and the 5 least poor Chicago
7neighborhoods showed that the poorest neighborhoods had a
8homicide rate that is 11 times the homicide rate in the least
9poor neighborhoods; the mortality rate for the leading causes
10of death in Chicago (cancer, heart disease, diabetes-related
11illnesses, stroke, and unintentional injury) is 5 times higher
12in the 5 poorest neighborhoods than it is in the 5 least poor
13neighborhoods; the infant mortality rate is 2 1/2 times higher
14in the poorest neighborhoods than in the 5 least poor
15neighborhoods; the Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL), an
16estimate of the average years a person would have lived if he
17or she had not died prematurely, showed that the YPLL due to
18homicide in the 5 poorest neighborhoods was 2,172 for every
19100,000 residents (assuming a life expectancy of 75 years)
20compared to the YPLL homicide rate of only 186 in the 5 least
21poor neighborhoods; and
 
22    WHEREAS, So long as these social and economic problems are
23not successfully addressed in distressed counties and
24communities, the cost to taxpayers in the State of Illinois for

 

 

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1the many programs operated or funded by the State will only
2increase; and
 
3    WHEREAS, State government resources are expended in
4ever-increasing amounts to address these social and economic
5problems; those expenditures are a significant drain on the
6State's road to financial stability; therefore, be it
 
7    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
8NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
9the Distressed Counties and Communities Task Force is created;
10and be it further
 
11    RESOLVED, That the Task Force shall consist of the
12following members: 4 members appointed by the Governor; 2
13members appointed by the President of the Senate; 1 member
14appointed by the Minority Leader of the Senate; 2 members
15appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives; 1
16member appointed by the Minority Leader of the House of
17Representatives; 1 member appointed by the Director of the
18Department of Human Services; 1 member appointed by the
19Illinois State Board of Education; 1 member appointed by the
20Department of Children and Family Services; 1 member appointed
21by the Illinois Housing Development Authority; and 1 member
22appointed by the Director of the Human Rights Commission; and
23be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, That this Task Force shall take testimony from
2stake holders in distressed counties and communities,
3representatives of appropriate State agencies, and community
4leaders to explore, discuss, and coordinate efforts to prepare
5an action plan to offer enhanced State governmental services in
6a meaningful way, to foster leadership, and to create programs
7that can succeed in addressing the myriad social and economic
8problems that exist in order to benefit all Illinois
9communities; and be it further
 
10    RESOLVED, That the Task Force shall hold hearings in
11distressed counties and communities to hear directly from
12stakeholders on their ideas for an innovative anti-poverty
13agenda; and be it further
 
14    RESOLVED, That the Task Force shall find and create
15innovative means to address and meet the numerous needs of
16those who receive State social services, design plans to assist
17and enhance the efforts of State agencies and local governments
18that provide law enforcement and social services, analyze
19successful State and local governmental programs in other
20locations in the subject areas of law enforcement, court
21administration, corrections, job skill retraining, education,
22economic opportunity, job creation, social services, and
23public health, and develop an action plan that includes

 

 

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1information about changes and improvements to existing
2programs, statutes, and regulations that can be made by
3reallocating existing resources and not increasing State
4taxes; and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That the Task Force shall develop a legislative
6and administrative agenda that can serve as a national model
7for developing a successful anti-poverty agenda; and be it
8further
 
9    RESOLVED, That the Office of the Governor shall provide
10administrative support for the Task Force; and be it further
 
11    RESOLVED, That the Task Force shall submit a report to the
12Illinois House of Representatives within 60 days of the
13completion of the hearings held by the Task Force.