The Human Face Of The Budget Cuts
At the end of June, Illinois' current fiscal year will run out. And that's a frightening prospect for non-profits and other state agencies
-- schools, early childhood education centers, health clinics, and so
on -- who still aren't certain what sort of funding they'll ...
At the end of June, Illinois' current fiscal year will run out. And that's a frightening prospect for non-profits and other state agencies -- schools, early childhood education centers, health clinics, and so on -- who still aren't certain what sort of funding they'll receive. They remain in limbo because, even after all the end-of-session hoopla in Springfield this past weekend, there is no budget deal in place. Yesterday, Gov. Pat Quinn released a list of non-mandated human service programs that will bear the brunt of the $7.5 billion worth of cuts lawmakers must make unless they approve new revenue sources during an overtime session later this month. The State Journal-Register highlights some of the devastating cuts outlined in the memo:
Alcohol and substance addiction programs would see 65,000 people lose treatment. Child care services would be cut for 80,000 low-income working mothers. A whopping 463,000 children and teens would lose services such as substance abuse, delinquency and teen pregnancy.
Quinn spokeswoman Katie Ridgway acknowledges that these cuts are just estimates based on the spending plan that went farthest during the spring session -- to fund 50 percent of the governor's budget and hand over the lump sums to agency directors who can figure out how to distribute it. State agency heads are crunching those numbers now, Ridgway tells us. In the meantime, the Ounce of Prevention Fund offers a look into what sort of impact that budget would have on the youth it serves. Their projections are ugly. Essentially, the Department of Human Services would get $1.6 billion to cover $3.5 billion worth of services including home visits, child care, and children’s mental health; and the State Board of Education would get $500 million to cover $900 million worth of programs, including early childhood programs.
Chicago Democrat Rep. Greg Harris tells us that the best hope for bringing those budgets up is political pressure. "Will we be able to bring them up to 100 percent? I don't know," he says. "But we should be able to get them up to 80 or 85 percent,. A 50 percent cut, that's disastrous."
To wit, leaders of some of Illinois' largest nonprofits are zeroing in on lawmakers who cast 'no' votes on revenue enhancements last weekend. Obviously, the bulk of the attention should be paid to members in the House, where a proposal to temporarily raise the income tax was shot down in a 42-74-2 roll call late Sunday. But Lutheran Social Services' Dan Schwick tells us that they're planning to spread the political pressure around. "We're trying to target legislators in both houses," he says, "and then make sure they're visited in each district and invited to all the local rallies."
The human cost is exactly what Rep. Will Burns (D-Chicago) said was missing during last week's eleventh-hour budget debate, which he described as "really abstract." Some anti-poverty advocates in Chicago aren't trying to bring that point home. The Heartland Alliance is publicizing that, in Rep. Heather Steans' North Side Chicago district alone, the cuts will mean 1,000 fewer people will receive the mental health, substance abuse, and youth homeless shelter services they rely on.
Meanwhile, at the Thompson Center today, members of the Grassroots Collaborative will call on lawmakers to "stop politicking and start leading." The rally, which begins at 11:30 a.m., will coincide with a meeting between Quinn and the four legislative leaders from the House and Senate.
"We're confident that there's going to be a different budget," Schwick tells us.
Comments
I wish that we would be talking about cutting the pork projects and reducing the size of government not always saying you are going to cutting the funding for programs for the elderly and children. It seems to be a strategy that is over used in order find the support to raise taxes. If programs need to be cut after the pork projects and the reduction of government than those programs can be evaluated at that time. This talk of always cutting sometimes need programs and ignoring the pork and expansion of government needs to stop. Stop playing politics as usual with our tax money and starting providing leadership.
Whichever way you look at it, there are tough choices ahead for Quinn and his administration. This will be painful.
Have any of the officials deciding the fate of alcohol and drug treatment in the State of Illinois ever thought about the car/truck they met on the road that DIDN'T cross over the line and hit them, OR the car/truck that DIDN'T run off the road and strike a pedestrian, or the people employed who DIDN'T make a fatal mistiake at their job whatever it is in which someone was hurt or killed? These are statistics that can't be measured except when someone is lost.
Additional losses that aren't measured now but will have long term effects due to employees in the field being unemployed due to budget cuts:
1. Where will income taxes come from?
2. Unemployment rates will go up.
3. Medicaid assistance will be increased
4. Loans will be defaulted
5. Businesses will lose business because previously employed individuals will be without funds to spend.
6. Children who have parents who drink or use will have no resource for help, the parents will be unable to get help to provide for the children, the cycle of use/abuse/neglect will continue.
This is just a start. Legislators....Step up to the plate and save alcohol and drug services!
I am going to institute the George Orwell Honorary 1984 Award for DoublePlusGood Speak and award it to any mealy-mouth who uses the term "Revenue Enhancements." Taxes and fees, people. Taxes and fees. Taxes on people and the businesses that employ them. Fees for services that would be covered by the taxes we already pay if it weren't for pork spending.
When prices go up and times get tough, I tighten my belt. I look for where I'm spending money I don't really have to (movies and dinner out aren't WASTE, but they are unnecessary extravagances) and I cut them. I don't get to go to my boss and demand more money. I don't know why the State thinks it can do what people and businesses cannot. But it's a common mindset among governments. Just ask the people of California, victims of the largest tax hike ever put onto a population in the history of this country.
Here's a start: get rid of every consultant. If you need an expert, hire one. Everyone knows consultants come at three times the price. Look at boards that produce opinions rather than work. Look at anything that has been instituted since the last fiscal crisis.
Do what every family and business that weathers a crisis does, and the State can weather this one.
How dare these people cut out programs for the most vulnerable people what could they be thinking or were they even considering what will happen to these children, men and women who cepend on these services to help them keep their familiies from instutionaling their family member. Take a step back and reconsider your poor choice of cuts and take a little from all and not all from just a little use your hearts to remember how it would be for you if it were your family member. Please reconsider your unwise decision and put these programs back in the budget and get rid of some of the other pork around our state like maybe the mid america airport snafoo. What a joke all that money and just sitting there what a tradgedy for our families. Where will they go and what will they do, I guess the homeless and helpless lines will grow in our state what a site for others to see how we treat the most helpless.
These cuts will affect many aspects of my life. I will lose my job as a direct care staff to people with disabilities because their budget is getting cut by at least 15%. My son, who has autism, is losing his services that are helping him to be independent. My child care will be lost and I will not be able to finish my bachelors degree, which I am supposed to finish in December. Please go out, write letters, do whatever you can. Obviously, these people have no personal experience with mental illness or developmental disabilities.
this is a pitiful situation.beins a single parent of a 1year old girl and a 3 year old both leaves me at a lost for words. I cann't believe this is happening.
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