Gov. Pat Quinn's cuts take swipe at least among us : Editorial Sept 2011

Our View: Gov. Pat Quinn's cuts take swipe at least among us
EDITORIAL by anonymous, Sep 13, 2011
Rockford Register Star:

Illinois doesn’t spend enough money to help people with developmental disabilities, so Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to spend even less makes no sense.

Last week Quinn announced plans to close seven state facilities — including Singer Mental Health Center in Rockford and Jack Mabley Development Center in Dixon — because he says there’s not enough money in the budget to keep them open. The move is expected to save $54.8 million.

State institutions are not the only entities to take a hit. Illinois has cut spending for community-based programs by $4 billion during the last 10 years — $76.3 million in the 2012 budget alone.

There’s no place for developmentally disabled people to go if they can’t access community programs, can’t live in institutions and can’t be taken care of by their relatives.

Public hearings will delay, if not derail, the governor’s plan, but if he somehow follows through, families will have to find new homes for their developmentally disabled children.

Barbara Cozzone Achino, president of the Dixon Association for Retarded Citizens and a member of the Human Rights Committee at the Mabley Center, has 38- and 41-year-old sons at the Dixon facility. Their disabilities are so severe they need the care the Mabley Center offers.

“This will be extremely stressful not only for my sons, but for all that live at Mabley,” Achino said of the governor’s plan. “None of us asked for a state-operated facility; we were sent there because no one in the community would serve our individuals. What are we to do? This budget will make cuts to all the developmentally disabled programs; therefore I’m not sure where they will place our 91 individuals.”

Even if the governor’s plan fails, or he changes his mind, these families will suffer undue stress because of their uncertain futures.

It’s inexcusable for the governor to put those families through more pain; they’ve had more than their fair share of hardships.

Achino wrote in an Aug. 5 guest column that her sons have Fragile X syndrome and function at the ages of 3 and 7. She tried to get them into community-based programs six times, but they were always sent back to the state-operated facility.

However, even if they could live in a community-based program, there’s little hope there. There are 21,000 children and adults in Illinois on the waiting list for services.

Jacki Neil Boss is executive director of The Arc of Winnebago, Boone and Ogle Counties, an agency that helps families raise children with developmental disabilities. She advocates for community-based programs, but the governor’s budget has little for agencies like hers.

The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill has given Illinois an “F” for its lack of funding to ensure access to community mental health services.

“The best place to serve people now living in institutions is the community, but only if the funding follows the person and can be used to provide the supports needed for success,” Neil Boss said. “Just to close these facilities to save money at the cost of care for these residents is not acceptable. Transitioning with appropriate community supports and the money to pay for those supports is the right thing to do.”

It’s clear that from a humanitarian standpoint, Quinn’s plan is wrong. We don’t see any economic sense in it either.

Adding 1,900 people to the unemployment rolls in Illinois does not help a state that already has a jobless rate higher than the national average.

We suspect Quinn is holding the least among us hostage in a continuing battle with AFSCME, the state’s largest workers union that sued Quinn for canceling the raises for thousands of workers. Or with the General Assembly, which failed to approve his proposal to borrow $8.75 billion to help pay down the state’s massive backlog of unpaid bills.

Again, inexcusable.

You would think that a 67 percent income tax increase and the $7 billion in new revenue it will put in the state’s treasury should make some money available for those who need it most.

Alas, in Illinois, not much done by our government officials makes sense.

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Ability Chicago Note:
As our policy, we do share different opinions on subjects. Ability Chicago does support in Illinois, as so many other states have done we offer a Group Home for those with developmental disabilities that chose to live in such. Illinois has more people with disabilities in nursing homes and institutions then any other state, at a estimated $60,000 per year per person; in a group home setting with proper support the cost is $30,000 per year.