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Dear Access Living friends and allies,
As the Illinois state legislature debates the Governor’s proposed budget this year, people with disabilities should be on pins and needles. State funded programs could either continue mostly as they are now, with possibly some increased capacity for state services; or they could be wrecked.
Governor Quinn proposed two different budgets. The first assumes that our legislators will extend, or make permanent, the temporary tax increase passed in 2011. The second assumes that the legislators will just allow the increase to expire, which would result in a loss of $2.2 billion in revenue. The first budget would be GOOD news for us; the second could destroy our human services social safety net with an average chop of 20% across the board.
Access Living endorses the first scenario, in which legislators take action to make the tax increase permanent. What would the second scenario mean for us? Access Living is directly affected by five state funding streams. The five areas are: Center for Independent Living General Revenue Funds; the Personal Attendant Program; the Emergency Back-up Personal Attendant Program; the VR 110 program (our Staff Associates program); and the funding for our de-institutionalization work under the Colbert consent decree (in which we help move people out of nursing facilities and into the community).
In total, the five programs amount to just over a million dollars for FY 14 right now. If you cut 20% across the board, that would be just over $200,000. In any of these areas, that would hinder our ability to run those programs.
While the last area may be protected because of the consent decree, a 20% cut to any of these items would affect our ability to be able to continue providing those services as we do now.
However, there are many, many organizations that also provide disability services that will be hit MUCH harder if there is a 20% across the board cut. Some community service programs are protected from cuts either by consent decree or because they bring in federal matching dollars. This means programs that do NOT have this protection would be cut more than 20%. Access Living community members are supported by a wide range of programs. If one piece of the network is in trouble, it will cause problems all across the network.
For example, if worst came to worst, $54 million would be cut in mental health spending and 35,000 people across the state would lose services. Almost $87 million would be cut from the Home Services Program. TANF would be cut by more than $44 million. Below my signature, you will find a chart that shows different human services programs (mostly disability related) and the possible cuts. Altogether, without the tax increase money, Illinois will lose $2.2 billion that pays for services like these.
We cannot afford to wait for the legislature to take its own sweet time to solve this problem. Please contact your legislators TODAY using this action alert and ask them to make the tax increase permanent so that we can live in freedom, not fear. It only takes two minutes.
Amber Smock
Director of Advocacy, Access Living
Appropriation
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FY15 Governor Quinn’s Proposed
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FY 15 NOT RECOMMENDED
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POTENTIAL CUTS
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| Developmental Disabilities Long Term Care | 794,473,000.00 | 600,464,300.00 | 194,008,700.00 |
| Child Care Services | 418,735,600.00 | 316,481,200.00 | 102,254,400.00 |
| Personal Services | 388,288,200.00 | 293,469,000.00 | 94,819,200.00 |
| Home Services Program | 355,487,200.00 | 268,677,800.00 | 86,809,400.00 |
| Mental Health State Operated Facilities | 233,587,200.00 | 176,545,700.00 | 57,041,500.00 |
| Temporary Assistance to Needy Families | 181,059,700.00 | 136,845,300.00 | 44,214,400.00 |
| Mental Health Grants, C&A, Transitions, and State Operated Facilities | 166,745,400.00 | 126,038,000.00 | 40,707,400.00 |
| Early Intervention Program | 83,700,000.00 | 63,260,600.00 | 20,439,400.00 |
| Mental Health Care Coordination | 52,850,500.00 | 39,933,000.00 | 12,917,500.00 |
| Addiction Treatment Services | 51,640,500.00 | 39,030,000.00 | 12,610,500.00 |
| Comm Transitions and System Rebalancing | 43,507,100.00 | 32,882,800.00 | 10,624,300.00 |
| Infant Mortality | 36,792,800.00 | 27,808,100.00 | 8,984,700.00 |
| Addiction Treatment/Medicaid Eligible | 35,376,400.00 | 26,737,500.00 | 8,638,900.00 |
| Home Services Program - Care Coordination | 30,100,000.00 | 22,749,800.00 | 7,350,200.00 |
| Aid to the Aged, Blind or Disabled | 30,028,600.00 | 22,695,700.00 | 7,332,900.00 |
| Mental Health Individual Care Grants | 22,415,000.00 | 16,941,300.00 | 5,473,700.00 |
| Youth Programs | 18,800,000.00 | 14,209,100.00 | 4,590,900.00 |
| Domestic Violence Shelters | 18,636,000.00 | 14,085,100.00 | 4,550,900.00 |
| Addiction Treatment/Medicaid Eligible - Care Coordination | 17,020,000.00 | 12,863,800.00 | 4,156,200.00 |
| Specialized Mental Health Rehabilitative Facility Community Program | 16,233,300.00 | 12,269,200.00 | 3,964,100.00 |
| Developmental Disabilities Transitions | 14,513,800.00 | 10,969,600.00 | 3,544,200.00 |
| Mental Health Supportive Housing | 13,397,100.00 | 10,125,600.00 | 3,271,500.00 |
| Supportive Housing Services | 11,038,500.00 | 8,342,900.00 | 2,695,600.00 |
| Employability Development Services | 10,682,400.00 | 8,073,800.00 | 2,608,600.00 |
| Healthy Families | 10,054,700.00 | 7,599,400.00 | 2,455,300.00 |
| Funeral and Burial Expense | 9,485,000.00 | 7,168,800.00 | 2,316,200.00 |
| DCFS Clients | 9,165,100.00 | 6,927,000.00 | 2,238,100.00 |
| Case Services To Individuals | 8,950,900.00 | 6,765,100.00 | 2,185,800.00 |
| Special Services | 7,691,400.00 | 5,812,200.00 | 1,879,200.00 |
| Developmental Disabilities Balancing Incentive Programs | 7,400,000.00 | 5,592,900.00 | 1,807,100.00 |
| Parents Too Soon | 6,870,300.00 | 5,192,600.00 | 1,677,700.00 |
| Immigrant Integration Services | 6,693,600.00 | 5,059,000.00 | 1,634,600.00 |
| Rape Victims/Prevention Act | 6,159,700.00 | 4,655,500.00 | 1,504,200.00 |
| Addiction Treatment-Special Population | 5,839,900.00 | 4,413,800.00 | 1,426,100.00 |
| Chicago Area Project | 5,645,400.00 | 4,266,800.00 | 1,378,600.00 |
| Redeploy Illinois | 4,885,100.00 | 3,692,200.00 | 1,192,900.00 |
| Mental Health Balancing Incentive Programs | 4,326,000.00 | 3,269,600.00 | 1,056,400.00 |
| Project For Autism | 4,300,000.00 | 3,249,900.00 | 1,050,100.00 |
| Independent Living Centers | 4,296,500.00 | 3,247,300.00 | 1,049,200.00 |
| Food Stamp Employment and Training | 3,651,000.00 | 2,759,400.00 | 891,600.00 |
| Homeless Youth Services | 3,598,100.00 | 2,719,500.00 | 878,600.00 |
| Department of Rehabilitation Services Balancing Incentive Programs | 3,578,500.00 | 2,704,600.00 | 873,900.00 |
| DCFS Community Integrated Living Arrangements For Access Living, visit: http://www.accessliving.org/ | 2,458,700.00 |
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