1998 Monte Dash Lights Will No Longer Work...

I have a 98 Monte Carlo w/109k on it. For a while the dash lights would work intermittently, but now have stopped working entirely. I had thought that it may be a problem in the dimmer switch, but when I control it, it still dims the lights on the radio perfectly. I have no other current real problems with the car that I can think of, and all of my fuses seem good. So I am not sure if it is just a bad wire or what?

My one theory is that maybe this wiring runs through the steering column somehow and due to the tilting of the steering wheel over time the wire has been pinched and/or broken...?? However, I do not get any flickers or anything when I tilt the steering column.

If it matters, I had had a problem with the PassKey system, but successfully bypassed it with the proper resistors, and the dash lights still worked at the time I did that (before & after for a time). I was having the intermittent problem before this too.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated.