By CHRIS KAERGARD : Jun 01, 2011
PEORIA — When it comes to the state budget passed by lawmakers in the waning days of their spring session, area human service and social service agencies still are more puzzled than anything else, still trying to figure out how much money will be flowing to them from the Illinois treasury.
That's largely because of the way lawmakers drew up their budgets, particularly in the state House.
"We had, for the first time since 1991, a budget process where the spending number was established first . . . and each of the appropriation committees was allocated a specific amount within that (to spend)," said state Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria, who sits on the human services appropriations committee.
"We spent hours and hours and hours going over every line in all of those budgets and relied heavily on the providers and other groups . . . for their advice. We had to make the money go as far as we could possibly make it."
What did that process translate into? Many agencies only know bits and pieces of the funding arrangement for now and are awaiting more data on what grant programs are getting money, or how larger allocations of money statewide will be portioned out to individual programs in regions of Illinois. For example, Martha Herm, the executive director for the Center for Prevention of Abuse, was gratified to hear that "on a macro level with domestic violence services, we're basically in the same ballpark as last year."
Unclear for them are the statewide funding levels for elder abuse and sexual assault programs. However, given that Gov. Pat Quinn's original budget had called for much sharper cuts to human services groups around the state, she thinks the end results are likely to be better than originally feared.
Meanwhile, Advocates for Access - which works to ensure independent living arrangements for people with disabilities - expects a small budget cut, about 1 percent, out of a $224,500 general funds stream from the state. That pleased Executive Director Melody Reynolds, particularly after cuts over the last three years that forced layoffs and the elimination of a program meant to move people toward home ownership. Some 50 people in the process of purchasing a home lost the program's support.
Still in the air for the group is a state grant helping fund its Community Reintegration Program. They expect to see a cut, but there are some indications that the group or others with similar missions may see increases because of an effort by lawmakers to move people out of state-run institutions for the disabled and into community-based settings. Doing so produces a cost savings that state Rep. Jehan Gordon, D-Peoria, called a "no-brainer."
"The state-operated facilities are extremely expensive, and Illinois has more of them than anywhere else in the country," Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria, said. "There hasn't been the courage to take money away from (them) and shift it more into the communities. . . . We took a step forward into that this year, albeit under difficult circumstances."
Parc still is not certain of its contribution from the state for a number of services it provides, including respite care for families of people with disabilities, as well as a specialty dental program for the care of those individuals. With $1.7 million from the state still unpaid with just less than 30 days left in the fiscal year, they also worry about the continuing backlog of unpaid bills to providers across Illinois, and the potential for maintaining or extending the deadline after which late-payment penalties kick in for the state.
"We have a line of credit (to rely on in those circumstances)," says Parc CEO Kim Cornwell. "But we go through that when they don't pay up."
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