Chicagoans Rally For Constitutional Convention

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Oct 13, 2008 4:40PM

A Sunday afternoon rally brought out a few hundred supporters for voting "yes" on an Illinois State Constitutional Convention. Such a referendum is automatically put on the ballot every 20 years and appears on this year's Election Day ballot. Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin (Dem.) said, "We need to change the educational article to make the state responsible for funding public education. That is not the case in Illinois. We need to change the revenue article. We don't have a progressive income tax."

One opponent of the referendum is The League of Women Voters, who say a convention would be too expensive ($80 million) and that nothing would be accomplished since the legislators that are being accused of corruption will be the ones running the convention. Said League rep Paula Lawson, "The terms are loose and vague. One of our points is that it is the current legislature that is not working that well that would make up the rules that would set up who would be elected to the constitutional convention as delegates."

The last time a change was made to the state constitution was 1970. The last time the referendum was on the ballot (1988), it was voted down.