To the Editor:

This week, in the final days of legislative session the General Assembly passed the budget for Fiscal Year 2012. Throughout this process, many tough decisions had to be made. There were cuts to nearly every agency in the state. I completely understand that we are in tough fiscal times and balancing our budget. My question is at what point do we stop cutting our most used and necessary programs that help our most vulnerable citizens.

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To the Editor:

The now infamous tragedy at Burr Oak Cemetery is an event that will weigh on the hearts and minds of Illinoisans for years to come. The images shown of the discarded headstones and burial monuments throughout the media and the knowledge that the bodies of people’s loved ones were treated with callous disregard were mind-blowing, my colleagues and I in the General Assembly knew that we needed to take action. In 2010, we passed the Cemetery Oversight Act (COA). The legislation completely transformed the way cemeteries conducted business and recorded data. The COA provided strict regulations to ensure that disastrous events like those at Burr Oak never occurred again.

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