By Associated Press Writer CHRISTOPHER WILLS (The Associated Press)
SPRINGFIELD – Education and human services, along with the workers who deliver them, take the biggest hit in the state budget just approved by Illinois lawmakers.
Groups that provide services for the state will feel the pinch, too. Legislators took no steps to catch up on more than $6 billion in overdue bills from small businesses, charities and local agencies.
Lawmakers insist that they had no choice but to rein in spending. Anything else would have deepened a budget hole that state government has been trying to escape for years now.
Rita Burke considers the cuts are a matter of life and death.
Her son, Brian, suffers from severe brain damage and requires round-the-clock care at a state institution, but those institutions lose at least 14 percent of their state funds.
Burke said she was “terrified” the cuts would require closing centers and leave no safe place for disabled people to go.
“We understand there have to be budget cuts, but we were disproportionately cut,” said Burke, president of the Illinois League of Advocates for the Developmentally Disabled.
“Is it because they can’t speak out for themselves? Is it because they don’t vote?”
Spending for state services drops slightly under the budget passed by lawmakers Tuesday, from $25.5 billion now to $25.3 billion in the upcoming fiscal year, according to a summary from Senate Democrats.
That’s $1.6 billion, or 6 percent, below the level requested by Gov. Pat Quinn.
McHenry County social service providers, already struggling after years of state cuts, spent Thursday awaiting word of how this budget could affect their individual agencies. Lorraine Kopczynski, president and CEO of McHenry-based Pioneer Center for Human Services, did not relish receiving the news.
“At best, they’re going to ask us to do the same amount of work for 6 percent less,” she said.
The Democratic governor railed against the budget Wednesday, saying lawmakers failed to “invest in things that count, that matter for jobs, that matter for families.”
But most legislative leaders insist their plan spends only what Illinois will take in during the coming year.
“We’ve been making tough choices and, I think, making a lot of accomplishments,” said Senate President John Cullerton, who criticized Quinn’s original budget proposal as “out of whack.”
Cost-cutting hits some parts of government harder than others. The Department of Human Services loses more than $669 million, or 17.3 percent.
The advocacy group Voices for Illinois Children argues many of those cuts will cost far more in the long run.
The TeenReach youth program, for instance, has been cut back steadily in recent years and now loses 42 percent of its remaining funds. TeenReach provides about 20,000 teens with alternatives to crime and drugs.
“It’s not just keeping them off the streets. It’s also helping to put them on a path to success,” said Sean Noble, policy director for Voices for Illinois Children.
Now the doors will be closed to about 8,300 of those teenagers, Noble said.
And a reduction of $170,000 in a program to help young parents will cost the state $50 million in federal aid over the next few years, Noble said. “It certainly doesn’t seem smart or efficient,” he said.
Education spending, instead of going up as Quinn wanted, declines $171 million, or 2.4 percent.
Early childhood education would lose $17 million. Mentoring for teachers and administrators would be eliminated entirely. Special education for orphans would take an $18 million cut.
The state’s main contribution to schools, general state aid, would drop more than $152 million, or 3.3 percent.
Rep. Roger Eddy, a school superintendent, backed the austere budget despite the impact on education.
“I’m willing to vote for a budget that cuts my life’s work because I know it needs to be done to put this state back on the right track,” the Hutsonville Republican said during the House debate.
Even programs that aren’t cut directly may wind up suffering under the budget approved by lawmakers. That’s because money for personnel and contracts is often reduced, meaning there will less money to pay state employees or hire outside experts.
The University of Illinois, for instance, loses all $40 million of the money set aside for “contractual services.” The Corrections Department and its overcrowded prisons lose $4.5 million for personnel.
The state’s key social services agencies, the Department of Human Services and the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, lose a combined $227 million for personnel and contracts, or almost one-third of their total.
Cuts in personnel spending would normally mean cuts in personnel — layoffs. But the state agreed not to lay off employees or close state facilities when the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees made other concessions to cut costs.
Lawmakers adjourned the spring session this week, but it’s not clear what ultimately will happen with their budget.
Senators wanted to restore $430 million in cuts, so they may want to tinker with it. Quinn’s veto powers let him cut spending, but not add any, so he could press for legislators to return and make changes.
But after casting difficult votes to cut spending, lawmakers may not be interested in backtracking.
“It’s going to be a tough, tough couple years but we have to get this done,” said Rep. Greg Harris, D-Chicago.
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