A total of 21 higher education institutions have signed on to the state-wide budget initiative letter, which was written by Timothy Brandner, NIU Student Association sergeant at arms.

The initiative, to be delivered to state lawmakers April 4, expresses a need for a Fiscal Year 2016 budget that gives sufficient funding to higher education institutions. The SA confirmed their support of the initiative during a Feb. 28 SA Senate meeting.

“The ideal outcome is that by April we get 30 to 40 schools signed on with 10 to 20 who have written their own letters to Springfield, and that [state lawmakers] look at that and realize that we are taking this issue seriously,” Brandner said.

The letter was written in response to the state budget impasse, which has resulted from state lawmakers’ lack of agreement with Gov. Bruce Rauner on a budget for FY 2016. Until a budget is passed, state budget appropriations cannot be disbursed, including funding for higher education.

Illinois is the only state still without a budget in place for the current fiscal year with Pennsylvania ending their budget stalemate Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

“There are a lot of legislatures that understand the impact [of the budget impasse] and would like to do something, like a pass a budget or fund the Monetary Assistance Program,” said Rep. Bob Pritchard (R-Hinckley). “But when you have leaders that have put the breaks on everything and refuse to negotiate, we’re not going to get a solution soon.”

In addition to sending the budget initiative to state lawmakers, Brandner said he plans to send it to news outlets in hopes of bringing attention to the budget impasse.

A media contact list was provided to the SA by Sean Anderson, student member on the Illinois Board of Higher Education. Anderson also signed on to the budget initiative in addition to the 21 schools, Brandner said.

Brandner electronically distributed the letter, which he finalized on Feb. 22, to representatives of roughly 60 to 70 higher education institutions in late February after SA Senate Speaker Dillon Domke gave the final OK after editing the document.

Since sending the initial email, Brandner has sent two follow-up emails to schools who have not responded to the request to sign on to the initiative. Two schools have openly denied their desire to sign on to the initiative, Brandner said.

School representatives have also been encouraged to write their own letter to state government officials that expresses their budgetary concerns. A total of seven of the 21 schools intend to do so. Brandner will bring copies of these letters to Springfield on April 4 in addition to the original budget initiative.

“Maybe we need to have more visible protests that would get the leaders to realize that this is a crisis,” Pritchard said.

The deadline for schools to sign on or submit a letter is April 3. Brandner said he hopes to drive to Springfield on April 4 to hand deliver the budget initiative to upper-level government officials, including Rauner and Michael Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.

“I’m hoping that [state lawmakers] are going to realize that there are hundreds of thousands of voters in the state who will not let them come back to office if they’re going to be gambling with our futures,” Brandner said.