* Yesterday’s hearing of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee was far from a pleasant event as members overwhelmingly approved several spending cuts…

A lengthy list of witnesses registered with the committee Wednesday, all of them opposed to the proposal.

“We were given the absolutely breathtaking, stunning task to reduce the budget by $1.2 billion,” committee chairman Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, said. “It was a hideous task.”

* Some details…

The Republican spokesperson on the committee, Rep. Rosemary Mulligan, R-Park Ridge, was the only “no” vote on the appropriations, saying that she appreciated the work of the committee in rewriting the budget but that “I don’t agree with it.”

The human service agencies took major cuts, with most travel and telecommunications line items reduced by 50 percent, and most personnel lines frozen at this year’s levels. Contractual services were for the most part cut as well. Perhaps the biggest reduction was an 18.4 percent cut in funding for state-operated developmental centers and mental health facilities. Lawmakers said they wanted to make greater use of community-based facilities. In fact, grant payments to some local programs for the developmentally disabled increase under the House budget. […]

Overall, the House committee plan — which could be voted on by the full House as soon as today or Friday — contains more than a billion dollars in cuts for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and about $650 million for the Department of Human Services.

* Some funding was spared, however…

State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, said she heard plenty of people say they wanted more from the state. In response, she restored 27 different pieces of the human services budget that Quinn zeroed out in the final draft she helped craft.

“He chose to take pharmaceuticals away from senior citizens; we put it back. He chose to take relief away through the Circuit Breaker (program); we put it back,” Feigenholtz said. “We want services and dollars and assistance to get to the people who have earned it, paid for it and worked for it their whole lives.”

Specifically lawmakers added $1.98 million for funeral and burial services for low-income families; the governor had scratched that program from his budget. Quinn also zeroed out money for the Children’s Place, a museum, and crisis nurseries that provide emergency shelter for women with babies and young children, across the state. Lawmakers added $487,500 and 100,000 respectively.

The numbers are included in budgets from the Illinois House. State senators have their own plan, both of which have yet to be voted on.

Feigenholtz said compromise is likely, but she expects a final spending plan to be close to her numbers. She said too many people worked too hard to produce what she hopes will be a “fair” budget.

* And there was a big “cut” which isn’t technically a cut…

The budget would extend the payment cycle for Medicaid bills from 24 to 45 days, a $500 million saving.

* Meanwhile, over in higher education, some MAP grants were cut to preserve other funding…

This draft for next year’s budget seeks to prevent the state’s Monetary Award Program, or MAP, from awarding grants to students attending for-profit schools.

For-profit schools operate as a business and receive public funds, according to Education.com. Among the for-profit schools is The School of the Art Institute and DeVry University in Chicago. The House’s proposed higher education budget, which aims to reach its $2.1 billion spending goal, also seeks to cut 1 percent in funding to universities. State Rep. Kenneth Dunkin, D-Chicago, who heads the budget committee on higher education, has said his committee found it easier to make cuts to for-profit schools, rather than deeper cuts to nonprofit schools.

Funding for community colleges, however, will not be cut and may, in fact, receive a financial bump from this proposal.

“The state of Illinois is broke,” said State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Charleston. “I think the taxpayers would think it’s outrageous that their taxpayer money is going … basically into the pockets of private, for-profit owners of some of these colleges.”

* And in K-12, some cuts the governor proposed were restored…

Quinn made headlines and raised eyebrows in February when he suggested that the state stop paying for regional school superintendents, which totaled $12.6 million this year. The governor zeroed out that portion of the budget for next year, but lawmakers returned $11.3 million in their draft.

State Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, who helped craft the education budget, said lawmakers feared that doing away with regional superintendents would cost the state more than the governor’s cut would save. […]

Lawmakers also returned millions of dollars that Quinn wanted trimmed from schools’ transportation budgets. The governor wanted to spend $175 million on school buses, but lawmakers increased that to slightly less than $295 million.

Dan Cox, superintendent of the Jasper County School District, said that with gas around $4 per gallon and a fleet of aging buses, he will need every dollar he can get.

* Budget roundup…

* ADDED: Could state’s bus funding plan hurt suburbs?

* VIDEO: Rep. Davis on education spending

* 4-H, Extension back in budget cross hairs: One version projects a cut worth $13 million, which could force layoffs and office closings throughout the state. The latest proposal comes a year after the Cooperative Extension received $7 million less in state funding, resulting in a statewide reorganization that included combining some counties into single operating units.

* Mayors tell Illinois to keep hands off tax dollars: The mayors scheduled a news conference Thursday at the Thompson Center in Chicago to discuss what they call a “hijack” of money designated for local governments. A confidential memo from Gov. Pat Quinn’s office last month mentioned keeping about $1 billion from local governments’ portion of state income tax revenue.

* Local educators, service providers, sites brace for reductions

* State revenue plan irks Tinley Park

* Budget proposals could cost area - Change in tax distributions could result in six-digit shortfalls for area municipalities

* The Labor Battle At SIU