* The BGA compiled this graph of the governor’s proposed unilateral social service budget cuts of more than 10 percent…
* From the accompanying story…
Following two years of tumult amid Illinois’ historic budget standoff, state funding for human service programs has become so unreliable some providers are now questioning if it might be wiser to forgo it entirely.
Programs that aim to treat addiction, prevent homelessness, provide autism care and more have spent the past two years in fiscal suspense as a political tug-of-war over state resources played out between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly.
The latest pull came as agencies that get assistance from three-dozen state human service programs learned in recent weeks that Rauner had unilaterally decided to withhold some of the money promised them in the state budget lawmakers passed this summer over the governor’s veto.
“Providers are saying, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’” said Nora Collins-Mandeville, public policy director of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, an umbrella group of agencies that help at-risk youths. “They have to decide if they can manage the risk.”
Many agencies have already run up credit lines, laid off staff and dramatically reduced the number of people they serve. In some cases, faced with no way to make ends meet at multiple points over the past few years, some providers have even been forced to close their doors in clients’ faces, which, “goes against every fiber of why agencies do what they do,” Collins-Mandeville said.
Rauner’s administration has outlined to Democratic lawmakers $89 million in spending reductions spread across 36 social service programs, one key lawmaker told the Better Government Association. The Rauner administration has confirmed some, but not all, of those cuts, arguing they are needed because the budget approved in July is badly out of balance.
- Free Set of Steak Knives - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 9:55 am:
How much revenue did we lose by reducing the income tax rate from 5% to 4.95%?
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 10:17 am:
These programs are not numbers and graphs
They are
Real lives effected
Real lives being turned upside down
Real lives robbed of hope
Put another way
Childcare figure it out yourself
Teen Reach screw you
Youth Employment get a job
Funeral & Burial find a vacant lot
Independent Living? Pshhhh moochers
Mental health no go away
Crisis intervention not my problem
The rest of you are done
Nothing for you
You are a worthless drain on taxpayers
These are obviously the “business decisions” Mrs Rauner doesn’t care about…. No Balls, Gala’s or silent auctions
Who is to notice right?
Social service employees who have been laid off will notice
Their children, their families will notice.
Their community will notice
No paycheck no spending
This is accelerating
The slide of the many
Not charts or graphs
Those are lives
Ruined by Rauner and his owned
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 10:41 am:
Rauner is such a pitiful piece of work.
- don the legend - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 10:45 am:
Rauner is just being consistent. He has doomed the innocent unborn and now he does the same to the many innocent born.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 10:51 am:
Just to be clear — the IT pinstripe patronage army is still at the top of the list for getting paid, right? The Cellini-clouted warehouse lessors? All the personal staff ghosts Rauner has stashed on different agency payrolls?
Wouldn’t want to see those guys have to clip coupons.
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 10:52 am:
I am not making this up… when I Googled “Rauner crisis quote”, this is what came up-
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/b/bruceraune831711.html
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 10:55 am:
By golly… there’s a whole page devoted to Rauner quotes-
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/bruce_rauner
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 11:32 am:
From the BGA report- “Asked to explain why certain social service programs were selected for reductions over others and at varying rates, Powers said that reductions were part of the administration’s strategy to balance the budget. She did not offer specifics.”
Now that Rauner has made the cuts, it’s time for a GA Committee to demand specifics as to why the cuts were made. Were the programs duplicative in nature, as Powers seemed to imply in the paragraph before the one I cited? Or, are these more of the same Crisis-Creatin’ cuts that are Rauner’s MO?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 11:34 am:
These are…
“The Rauner Cuts”
Are social services still upset with “both sides”
Rauner vetoed the current budget that allowed payments to social services.
Bipartisan legislators got those vetoes overriden.
Rauner now wants these cuts.
We done with “both sides”?
- Anon - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 11:52 am:
Rauner has supported a number of changes in the criminal justice system to reduce recidivism
I dont understand why he doesnt see these programs should be a part of this agenda
- Arthur Andersen - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 12:51 pm:
word, it’s unfortunate that you have such low regard for the sanctity of old manila folders.
- Chicago Barb - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 5:31 pm:
At least one large social service agency ceased providing any services that are not consent decreed or federal passthrough dollars.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Oct 24, 17 @ 11:45 pm:
AA, this administration seems to believe the moral test of government is how we treat manilla folders in the twilight of their shelf lives.
I mean, Dwight was good enough to house female inmates, but not old papers.