One reason why cutting the budget ain’t easy
Tuesday, Feb 7, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* If true, this potential budget cut could indeed be devastating for that Peoria program. But WMBD may have crossed the line into outright activism with this story…
A vital program for kids with autism could be the next victim of Governor Quinn’s budget ax. […]
He’s expected to propose major cuts to The Autism Program of Illinois, or TAP. It’s possible the program could even be eliminated all together.
The autism program at Easter Seals of Central Illinois gets money from TAP. If money is completely cut off, it would mean layoffs and a blow to services for the families Easter Seals serves. […]
Easter Seals is asking you to take action. It wants you to send letters to Governor Quinn asking to keep the funding.
The station then supplied a link to a webpage that allows people to send letters to the governor.
* Roundup…
* Editorial: State’s eavesdrop law should be changed
* Sheriff’s office criticizes new cemetery rules signed by Quinn: “The individuals that did the horrific tragedy at Burr Oak, the way that this language is currently written and passed and signed now, would allow them to come back to work at Burr Oak without any questions,” said Frank Bilecki, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
* Illinois to extend immunity for drug users who report overdoses: The measure is meant to address scenarios in which friends let friends die from overdoses rather than risk being arrested themselves for drug use after calling for emergency help.
* Quinn’s Policies, ICE Controversy Dominate Immigrant Integration Summit
* New Illinois school report cards will be shorter, simpler
* Speed cameras coming to your town soon
* Editorial: Why open government matters to all
- Louie - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 2:13 pm:
=One reason why cutting the budget ain’t easy=
Not that difficult, if cuts were made across the board, rather than draconian cuts to headline grabbing programs. Quinn picks a special program like Autism, proposes cuts, then waits for the backlash and says “see nobody wants cuts.
Make cuts for all departments and they will adjust to fewer dollars and services will not suffer.
- dave - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 2:22 pm:
**Not that difficult, if cuts were made across the board**
LOL… you simply cannot just cut across the board. It doesn’t work that way.
- steve schnorf - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 2:52 pm:
With all due respect to Governors who have had to deliver one in the past, this budget and the speech describing it is going to be the most difficult thing any Illinois Governor has had to do in my memory. Shall we do many (most?) things less well, some things not at all, deficit spend in the billions, or a combination of all the above? I’m glad I’m not Governor Quinn or David Vaught, because what we are probably going to see is the autism situation times many, many more.
- windshouter - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 3:08 pm:
I am very much in favor of spending as much money on autism as humanly possible for selfish reasons, but the argument that the Autism project should be funded so they can in turn fund Easter Seals seems needlessly indirect. You could for instance, cut out the middle man and fund the service provider more directly. You may not save that much money that way, and TAP may do good work otherwise, but the budget is going to be very tough and lots of good programs and good ideas need to be on the block. If one wants to make an argument for TAP, it needs to be about providing expertise to the service providers that the normal programs won’t otherwise be able to provide. One can do that, but one needs to be that directly.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 3:57 pm:
Louie:
They are all gonna be headline programs and if you don’t realize that you don’t understand the current budget situation.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 4:06 pm:
I hope everyone’s paying attention to Schnorf. It ain’t going to get any easier for a while.
- mark walker - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 4:13 pm:
There are going to be many high and low-profile spending cuts, all are going to really hurt, some will be tragic, none are going to be taken back — and then the House will appropriate even less than the Governor was planning. No way out.
And then Medicaid eligibility and rates will change.
And then Pension rules and ramp-up will change.
And then the tax base will expand.
And then if the economy comes back, we might be relatively healthy in 5 or so years.
Anything short of all of these is just sales talk.
- Confused - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 4:48 pm:
Sure, but how about the State Government show a little faith with the people of the state and find some fat to trim first. Seriously? Autism? How about we eliminate funding for able bodied adults above 133% poverty line first (we fund enrollees up to 186% now) - even ObamaCare is less generous than Illinois in this respect. We may have to go after autism funding, but it should not be first (unless you’re trying to get a political charge out of the situation… naaa… not Quinn…).
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 5:08 pm:
Across the board budget cuts are, lazy, counterproductive, and bad public policy.
They are the prime reason we adopted Budgeting for Results.
Across the board budget cuts prop up less effective providers and programs and undermine more effective agencies and programs.
Moreover, if you are a nonprofit agency that provides multiple services, as many do, you’d much rather the state close down the least effective program so you can lay off staff and reduce your operating costs than try to operate all of your programs at 90% funding.
- DuPage Dave - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 5:17 pm:
Amen to Brother Schnorf. This year will be a tough one. I for one would like to hear his suggestions for making the best of the situation.
Also- the line was definitely crossed into advocacy for the local not-for-profit agency. It might have been more of a news article if there was information about how much money the state puts into the autism project and how much the Peoria agency stands to lose.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 5:41 pm:
@Schnorf-
We should do some things - the least important things and the least efficient things - not at all.
So, lets have that ugly public debate about our state’s priorities.
What’s more important to downstate voters: protecting prison funding or people with disabilities?
What’s more important to Chicagoland and suburban voters: providing tax breaks for CME, Sears and the Chicago Tribune, or protecting people with disabilities?
Lets get it on!
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 6:32 pm:
And with all due respect to Schnorf, wordslinger and others, it isn’t “just” a math problem. How you think about the math problem makes a huge difference in how groups solve math problems.
The traditional focus on annual spending/input controls has had some pretty disasterous consequences on how we balance that math equation.
In times of economic prosperity, we control the flow of spending by diverting it into new programs, and ignore opportunities to cut funding for old programs that no longer work.
In times of economic hardship, we divert spending away from core programs without considering future consequences, and ignore opportunities to invest in new programs that could produce highly desired results.
Imagine if you were a publishing company and people are buying books left and right, so you decide you’re going to use the new revenue to start producing water pistols.
Or when the economy turns down, you decide to stop printing best sellers by stephen king because thats where your production costs are highest.
Dumb and dumber.
- steve schnorf - Tuesday, Feb 7, 12 @ 7:47 pm:
=”Quinn wants to cut $2 billion from Medicaid budget”=
He “wants” to cut that much just like the rest of us do, and it probably needs to be more like $3.5. But either way, how do we get there from here?
- Budget Watcher - Wednesday, Feb 8, 12 @ 6:12 am:
This year is going to be a year like no other. We all need to be prepared for proposed cuts that are beyond anything we’ve seen before.