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The Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, representing community providers of services for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, today issued the following statement after a new state budget proposal emerged in the Legislature:

“We regretfully must oppose this and any other state budget proposal that includes a proposed wage structure for our frontline workers that will not meet their needs and leave our workforce crisis intact.

We have advocated all spring for a $4 an hour increase in wages for Direct Support Professionals (DSPs), the brave frontline staff who meet the basic needs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. These are very difficult but rewarding jobs, and we need to pay them more to draw more people into these careers.

The $2 an hour increase proposed in this state budget is only slightly above the $1.50 proposed earlier this year in the Governor’s budget plan, and half of what we believe is needed for real progress in three areas:

• To make these jobs competitive with the minimum wage increases seen at restaurants, retailers, etc.
• To bring our state closer to compliance with a long-running Consent Decree mandating that persons with disabilities have opportunities to live in their communities. We have been out of compliance for six years in a row.
• To help reduce a waitlist of nearly 15,000 people seeking care today, including those in state developmental centers such as Choate where the Administration has plans to move residents into community settings

We are grateful for the dollars invested in recent state budgets to help our workers support those they serve. But we must speak up now and urge the Governor and Legislature to reconsider the wage increase in the latest budget proposal and move closer to the $4 an hour increase we and our legislator champions have advocated.”