* I went through our post from yesterday and pulled out the extra asks for you to see here…

* Economic Security for Illinois: “We were disappointed to learn that Governor Pritzker’s proposed budget fails to include a plan to create an Illinois Child Tax Credit.”

* Sen. Mike Simmons: “(M)ore funding is still needed to help historically underserved communities grappling with the continuing HIV and AIDS crisis and for Black-led community organizations to help with this issue.”

* SEIU Healthcare: “The proposed budget’s lack of investment in the home care workers who make it possible for seniors to stay in their homes may force some to forgo needed care or be forced into nursing homes.”

* AARP Illinois: “We must also expand access to services to achieve equity in home and community-based care across the Community Care Program and Home Services Program, increase funding for case management and adult day service programs, pass a tax credit to support Illinois’ 1.5 million unpaid family caregivers, and raise the monthly grant level for the [Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled] program.”

* Illinois Partners for Human Service: “While increased state and federal dollars have been directed to our sector over the past two years, very little of this funding has addressed the systemic challenges facing the health and human services workforce. We appreciate the Governor’s acknowledgement of these structural issues, but we are far from where we need to be. More work - and investment - is needed to rectify the consequences of twenty years of disinvestment in the health and human service sector in our state.”

* IARF: “We now ask the General Assembly to build on this proposed budget and advance our legislation to increase the wage rate for Direct Support Professionals by $4 an hour to help address the workforce crisis Gov. Pritzker discussed today, as well as legislation increasing targeted crisis mental health service rates.”

* Illinois Education Association: “IEA has introduced Senate Bill 1749 that would allow vision and dental coverage for our retired members.”

* Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: “In addition to at least $53 million for the Immigrant Services Line Item, ICIRR members and our coalition partners are committed to ensuring that a state Child Tax Credit and healthcare for all Illinoisans regardless of immigration status are included in the final budget.”

* Illinois Association for Behavioral Health: “While we appreciate an incremental increase in the proposed budget, we will advocate vigorously to align spending with the speech’s ambitious sentiments.”

* Chicago Coalition for the Homeless: “We encourage the legislature to work with the Governor’s office to include an increase in TANF to 50% of FPL to provide additional funds to pay off debt, to save, and to make the necessary purchases for their families.”

* Illinois Shelter Alliance: “Our request for $61 million in Emergency and Transitional Housing Program funding was originally outlined in a letter sent to Governor Pritzker in December.” [The governor proposed $55 million.]

Thoughts?

…Adding… Capitol News Illinois has some more…

While he celebrated his efforts, Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, said the state needs to invest $200 million more in the funding formula to address the Black community’s lack of resources and disproportionate impact, particularly in education. […]

State Sen. Cristina Pacione-Zayas, D-Chicago, agreed.

“We are fully aware that if we only do a $350 million increase annually, we’re not going to reach adequacy by 2027,” she said. “I think that’s very well-established. So we will definitely be deep in those negotiations to see how much more we can add on top of that.” […]

The Latino Caucus, for example, will be seeking a major expansion of Medicaid coverage to undocumented immigrant adults – those not currently covered by laws passed in the last few years aimed at coverage of undocumented youth and seniors. Details on that plan – including cost – will be introduced at a later date, caucus members said Wednesday.

…Adding… The governor had this to say earlier today when asked about the push to increase Evidence-Based Funding…

Maybe we should go back to Greg Bishop’s suggestion that we raise taxes? Was that your suggestion? [Laughter] No.

The truth is that everybody here has been pretty, I’m talking about the General Assembly and the members from throughout the state, is being prudent about putting more money into our K-12 system. I want to point out it’s not just 350 million in EBF. We also, you heard me yesterday talk about an additional $86 million for what are called categoricals, transportation, special education, and $70 million more per year for a program to bring in new teachers. We need to improve our teacher pipeline, and there are 170 school districts that account for 80% of the shortfall in teachers. So the teacher vacancies, 80% of them are in 170 out of our roughly 850 districts. And that’s where we’re putting our dollars, so that we can bring in and let those districts decide how they want to attract those new teachers because they know better than we do what will work in their districts. A rural district is very different than an urban district. So, just to give you an idea that’s you know, I’ve said was $506 million. There actually are hundreds of millions more in various aspects of K-12 education. But yeah, we’ve got to continue to fund our education system.