*** UPDATE 2 - 11:48 am *** This was in my in-box earlier and didn’t notice it. DCFS cuts announced…

Dear Provider,

The General Assembly recently approved a “50-percent budget” for fiscal year 2010 that cuts a long list of vital services and programs. This budget falls far short of meeting the statutory obligations and needs of the State, and fails to fulfill our basic commitments to the people of Illinois.

The legislature’s “50 percent budget” cuts $460,451,675 from $1,337,750,700 from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, severely impacting our ability to provide services.

Due to the General Assembly’s failure to approve the revenue plan proposed by Governor Quinn, the State of Illinois will no longer be able to afford contract # 0 for Fiscal Year 2010…

*** UPDATE 1 - 9:38 am *** DHS has sent a memo to providers telling them about upcoming budget cuts and how they will impact the private providers. Read the memo by clicking here.

[ *** End of Updates *** ]

* The Daily Herald editorial board, once again, proves its own cluelessness…

Your leaders really are not helping. In the Senate, your leadership hung you out to dry by convincing six of you suburban Democrats to vote for a big tax hike that went nowhere and certainly wasn’t accompanied by budget cuts.

Actually, the tax plan voted on in the Senate would’ve forced $2 billion in budget cuts or reforms. Can’t that edit board pick up the phone and call its Statehouse bureau? Sheesh. And didn’t it read the Taxpayer Action Board report, wherein former state budget director Steve Schnorf wrote this about the board’s proposed budget reforms…

“My best personal estimate is that you will be able to save very little, if any, money in (fiscal 2010),” Schnorf wrote. “If I were working on the budget, I would be thrilled if there were $200 million in actual, achievable FY10 savings.”

* Republican state Sen. John Jones doesn’t believe that doomsday is coming…

Jones called for Governor Pat Quinn to get off his high horse and stop acting like former Governor Rod Blagojevich in traveling around the state using scare tactics. “Everybody’s been misinformed. They think the 50% budget that the House and Senate passed is at the Governor’s office and he’s going to sign it into law. He isn’t going to sign it into law. In fact, they haven’t even sent it to him. They aren’t about to send it to him. That was just a ploy to stir everybody up. Everybody thinks they’re getting a 50% cut, but we’ll work through this,” Jones said.

* But…

Thousands of state workers have their jobs on the line as officials continue debating whether to raise the income tax and how deeply government operations must be cut to balance the budget.

* And here’s my Sun-Times column…

I’ve always thought that Illinois government functioned best when it was divided.

The anecdotal evidence is clear. For decades we had a Republican governor and a Democratic Legislature, or at least a Democratic House, and things went pretty well.

But under total Democratic rule, the process has appeared hopelessly broken.

For the third year in a row, the May 31 deadline for passing a state budget has been blown. Draconian budget cuts are coming without some sort of tax increase, but there’s been precious little progress on that front. Gov. Quinn seems unable to make any headway.

Whenever the budget was broken in the past, GOP governors were able to persuade Republican legislators to vote with the majority Democrats to get things done. Back in 1983, Illinois’ unemployment was higher than it is now. The state was flat broke. Yet, Republican Gov. Jim Thompson managed to increase both the income tax and the sales tax, and he did it with quite a few Republican votes.

Thompson recalled that he used to jog in Springfield’s Washington Park every morning and that House Republican leader Lee Daniels had a residence near the park.

“I bought a coffee pot and five pounds of coffee,” Thompson said. “I knocked on [Daniels’] door, barged in and said, ‘Listen, I’m not leaving until you come to my side if I have to come back every morning.’ And I did until we reached an agreement.

“I convinced him that I was determined to do this and I was willing to listen to his concerns, but that the matter was personal to me.”

Daniels says there was very little jogging involved. “Thompson was a walker,” the retired House GOP leader cracked. But there was a lot of coffee, and a whole lot of give-and-take.

The Republicans initially opposed Thompson’s proposal, Daniels said, “but we became aware that without some kind of revenue enhancement, there would be dramatic reductions in state services.”

As a minority leader, Daniels said, “I always thought my job was to present alternatives” to the majority’s proposals. “We weren’t saying ‘No, no, no.’ We came back with a variety of alternatives.” One of those alternatives was a temporary income tax increase. Thompson at first balked, but finally gave in; and the tax increase did, indeed, expire 18 months later.

But that give-and-take didn’t happen with the Republicans this spring. Not a single GOP legislator was willing to vote for an income tax increase in either chamber, though several privately expressed a willingness, even an eagerness, to do so. The Republicans also proposed no serious alternatives.

Thompson laid the blame for that at the Democrats’ feet. In his day and long after, Republicans always had a seat at the table. But this year, they were left out of the process until Democrats demanded in the final days of the session that Republicans vote for an income tax increase to fund a budget that they had no role in constructing.

Quinn asked Thompson to call House Republicans to get the lay of the land. Thompson said he told Quinn what their answer would be before he ever picked up the phone: “We were frozen out for six months and now you want our vote, but you don’t want our voice.”

So, I’ve revised my theory. What has been missing this year, and through most of the Rod Blagojevich years, is a governor who thought like a real leader.

“You gotta think about what it takes to get things accomplished,” Thompson said. “You gotta set your mind on what you need to do to get things done and to find the compromises so you can get stuff passed.”

None of that happened this year.

What a mess.

* Related…

* ADDED: STAR bonds bill in Illinois should be rejected

* Potential state budget cuts spark protests in Crystal Lake, Woodstock: Howell was one of about 30 people Thursday who took part in a protest at Friendship House in Crystal Lake. A separate protest of about 20 people occurred later in the day in Woodstock outside of the office of state Rep. Jack Franks.

* Little consenus on budget crisis

* SJ-R: The time is now: House Speaker Mike Madigan’s position appears to be that he won’t mobilize his Democratic members for a tax increase until some Republicans get on board, too. House Republican leader Tom Cross says that won’t happen until the Democrats get behind some budget reforms the Republicans want. Reps. Raymond Poe and Rich Brauer, both Republicans — voted against raising the income tax, but seem to be ignoring the potential catastrophic effects on their constituents and neither has proposed where exactly to cut state government to fill a $12 billion hole.

* Advocates to Lawmakers: “Don’t Drop the Ball”: Advocates for early childhood education took to the road Thursday to remind lawmakers that they need to “get on the ball” and find a different budget solution.

* Groups: Don’t ‘drop the ball’ on youth funding: About 71 people took their protest directly to local lawmakers on behalf of Child Care Resource and Referral, which operates out of John A. Logan College.

* State budget cuts squeeze day-care users, providers - Could hurt 3,200 local low-income families

* Quinn warns of budget consequences: “We have to make sure our state budget is balanced and has enough revenue to invest in important human services that are especially indispensable during a hard economic time,” the governor said.

* Quinn warns about upcoming cuts: “Do we want more suicides in Illinois? I don’t think so,” Quinn said outside the mental health center… The governor, who has been engaged in talks with legislative leaders, sidestepped a question about whether he would accept any of the budget cuts that Republicans have been urging. Instead, he focused on the need to raise revenue, noting it had been done in tough economic times before, including in the 1930s.

* Audits slap Ill. agencies for waste, lax oversight: The cases are tiny pieces of the state’s nearly $60 billion budget, but they could provide leverage for critics who say government spending cuts are needed before tax hikes proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn are even considered.

* Audit finds 52 computers missing from state agency

* Auditor questions $98,000 spent on conference meant for education about slavery

* ‘Very bad audit’ turns up trouble at education office: The state’s top auditor called for a criminal probe of the suburban Cook County regional education office after an audit found that the director repeatedly used a government credit card for personal expenses and approved questionable payments to relatives on his payroll.

* Social services decry budget cuts

* SIU trustees ponder money problems

* Crosspoint programs in jeopardy

* State says it has treatment for ‘nature deficit disorder’

* Governor Pat Quinn Proclaims “Childrens’ Day” on Sunday