Chicago–(ENEWSPF)–November 2, 2016. On Wednesday a coaltion of organizations including Grassroots Collaborative, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, ReFund America Project, SEIU Healthcare, University Professionals of Illinois, and State Representative Will Guzzardi (D-39) held a press conference about financial deals being cut between Governor Rauner and Wall Street banks.
Participants called on Governor Rauner to not sign away the state’s right to sue the banks, as Mayor Emanuel did when he negotiated the city’s toxic swap deals. The coalition called on Attorney General Lisa Madigan to sue Wall Street for defrauding Illinois taxpayers. The following is a statement from Grassroots Collaborative:
“Wall Street banks used predatory financial deals to take hundreds of millions from Illinois taxpayers. For over a year, Grassroots Collaborative has been organizing against these deals that are draining public budgets here in Illinois,” said Amisha Patel, Executive Director of Grassroots Collaborative. “Our efforts pressured the Governor to act and successfully prevented the state of Illinois from paying out $870 million to Wall Street banks on November 27th, but the toxic swap crisis has only been delayed, not averted.”
Saqib Bhatti, Director of the ReFund America Project added, “We’re glad we forced the Governor to act to avoid this payout, but we are very concerned that he just kicked the can down the road to the end of his term in office. The main part of the deal that the Governor negotiated just moves the time bomb two years into the future, until November 8th, the day after he is up for re-election in 2018.”
During the press conference, speakers reiterated the need for legal action to produce a long-term solution to the swap crisis.
Tanya Moses, a homecare worker with SEIU Healthcare stated, “We want the Attorney General to take legal action to recover our tax money. I understand that other states and cities have successfully sued over these deals. We need the Governor to not get in the way of the state using it’s full legal options by signing away the state’s right to sue and get our money back.”
Following the press conference the Rauner administration released a statement saying that the state will maintain the ability to take legal action.
Representative Will Guzzardi responded to Rauner’s announcement stating, “We have to keep pushing to make sure that Illinois maintains its legal right to sue to recover money from these bad bank deals. And we need transparency. We need to know what is in the financial deals that Governor Rauner is entering into with Wall Street banks behind closed doors. The state needs to get its priorities straight; it is high time we put working families ahead of Wall Street banks.”
