As reported by Chicago Tribune By Monique Garcia and Ray Long
SPRINGFIELD Tinley Park Mental Health Center and six other state facilities would stay open in the short term and nearly 1,900 layoffs would be avoided under a deal struck Monday night, according to leading Democrats and Republicans.
The outline of an agreement was worked out in the Capitol office of Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who huddled with lawmakers from both parties for more than two hours.
Emerging from Quinn’s office, Senate Republican leader Christine Radogno said details are still being crafted, but a measure “will be very clear that the facilities are to stay open pending any kind of orderly transition of those that may need to close in the future.”
“We’ll avoid that chaos that we were afraid would happen with what the governor had proposed,” said Radogno of Lemont.
During the summer, Quinn targeted for quick closure mental health centers in Tinley Park, Rockford and downstate Chester, centers for the developmentally disabled in Jacksonville and Dixon, a prison in Lincoln and a youth center in Murphysboro. He blamed the legislature for failing to provide enough money in the budget.
Quinn’s office confirmed late Monday that a plan is now in place. It’s likely to be voted on Tuesday, which is supposed to be the General Assembly’s last session day of the year.
“We have reached a bipartisan budget agreement that achieves the goal of keeping the seven state facilities slated for closure open throughout this fiscal year using existing state resources,” the administration said in a statement.
The money to keep all of the facilities open through at least June 30 is expected to come from lawmakers shifting money around following Quinn’s budget vetoes this summer. The mental health centers and homes for the developmentally disabled still eventually would close as residents are moved into community-based settings the next few years, aides have said.
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