The Human Face of the Budget Cuts
Progress Illinois
June 4, 2009
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 who still aren’t certain what sort of funding they’ll receive
From Progress Illinois:
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.”