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* Mark Brown…
“Both sides think the other is going to blink first, and in the meantime, people are dying,” said Emily Miller, policy director at Voices for Illinois Children.
Dying may strike you as hyperbole, unless you are suicidal and seek help, only to find a six-month waiting list for treatment — just one of the many service gaps created by the state’s inability to agree on a budget.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 9:44 am
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Ms Miller says it well.
The two people at the center of this =epic struggle= are both wealthy and well insulated from the effects of it. Their families are not the ones depending on many of these services.
Comment by Formerly Known As... Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 9:51 am
We didn’t have THIS problem under Quinn, Blago, Ryan, Edgar, Thompson….
Comment by Union Man Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 9:59 am
As much as both sides deserve blame, Rauner said from before his election that he intended to leverage social services to get his agenda through. This is his mess that he’s created and it’s disgraceful.
Comment by slow down Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:02 am
That is the whole synopsis of this entire stalemate. Aside from the countless human service providers and the higher education struggles, which are incredibly huge and not to be taken lightly — we are short a major crisis. As an example, when you look at the public policies that could’ve cost elections in recent memory, Chicago streets not getting plowed, back in the day, MGT-Push with Quinn, and the NRI scandal, we lack the major media firestorm.
It will likely take a major prison riot that results in death, a large group of mental health providers being able to directly tie the stalemate to patient suicides or other catastrophic examples to move public opinion.
People right now are huddle in three distinct camps, Rauner is right, Madigan is right, or just fix the damn budget. Until two of three of these coalitions merge - the continued 95% budget spending and nonviolent civil war wages on.
Comment by PrisonLocation? Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:04 am
Not hyperbole at all. The mentally ill, homeless, drug addicted, medically fragile people who can’t access the services they need, etc. etc. Illinois citizens are dying for no other reason than the services they depend on to stay alive are being held hostage for reforms with a 1.4% ROI.
Comment by Cubs in '16 Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:12 am
compromise……that takes two people….Madigan has already said he will not compromise….
Comment by Anonymous Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:14 am
Union Man @ 9:59 +1
Comment by AC Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:16 am
Dying may strike you as hyperbole
It’s not. I helped a woman two days ago who lives in a tin shed. I was thinking about her this morning as it stormed so hard. By the way, she is not some perennial poor person. She was a structural engineer and asked about work programs. “I’m sorry, I don’t have anything to refer you too.” That’s the effect of no budget. She fell on hard times and now lives in a tin shed out back of a guys house. I actually had to quiz her to make sure she is not being trafficked and is safe. “No, he’s a nice guy who is helping me out.” So no the line isn’t hyperbole. It’s that serious folks.
Comment by Honeybear Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:17 am
There is an emergency approp. for social services on the governor’s desk that passed the GA by overwhelming, bipartisan votes.
Perhaps he should sign it. And in the future, perhaps emergency legislation should not be subject to hostage-taking and leverage games.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:17 am
“We didn’t have THIS problem under Quinn, Blago, Ryan, Edgar, Thompson…”
“Rauner said from before his election that he intended to leverage social services to get his agenda through.”
He said he was going to do it. Then it happened.
But we’re still scratching our heads about who’s responsible?
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:17 am
==Madigan has already said he will not compromise==
No compromise. No alternatives. No suggestions. No change. No progress.
Just 14 years straight of budget deficits, going on 15.
Comment by Formerly Known As... Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:40 am
And in a different way, our institutions of higher education are dying as well.
Real people are being impacted whether they be elderly, the poor, the most needy, or our students who deserve the best education they can get.
Leverage and Hostages.
Comment by illini Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:41 am
Rauner’s record on running nursing homes in the private sector should have been a red flag, his actions as governor against the most vulnerable is not surprising.
Comment by DuPage Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:43 am
Foster children in the custody of DCFS did die during the Blago and Quinn years and the Sun Times reported on it. You have to give credit to human services providers who struggle to perform their mission in a state where the interests of current and former state workers have historically been put above the interests of the truly needy.
Rauner wants to change that and Mark Brown and others in the media can’t get beyond their status as members of the Democratic coalition to actually report facts and not echo talking points.
Comment by Randy Tinkens Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:49 am
Emily might have some important conversations with the people who are in the way of saving her people.
Comment by A guy Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 10:51 am
“Emily might have some important conversations with the people who are in the way of saving her people.”
Ya think Emily can get Bruce’s cell number from Dianna?
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 11:07 am
==Emily might have some important conversations with the people who are in the way of saving her people.==
Saving them from whom?
So, why not just start there.
Comment by crazybleedingheart Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 11:08 am
–No compromise. No alternatives. No suggestions. No change. No progress.–
There is a bipartisan, compromise, emergency social services approp. gathering dust on the governor’s desk.
You may not have noticed before posting your boilerplate, but the emergency in social services funding is the subject of the thread.
And paying them even a portion of what they’re owed under their state contracts would be a welcome change, progress and a moral alternative to the current “no-pay” situation. I suggest you urge the governor to sign it.
–Emily might have some important conversations with the people who are in the way of saving her people.–
Ms. Miller and others already have publicly called for the governor to sign the bipartisan emergency appropriations bill passed by the GA.
And after months of discussion with the governor and his peeps, a coalition of social service providers have sued him for failure to honor their contracts with the state.
So, they’re doing what you ask.
Comment by wordslinger Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 11:41 am
Emily Miller is the voice for the Illinois people right now. Not gonna happen, but I’d like to see a little bit of a legislative revolution right now where the members would agree to reach a deal, just like in the good old days. There are two huge egos in the room, and a lot of games are being played while people suffer. I’d like to see our elected representatives act more in the interest of the people they represent, rather than being worried about their re-election or who will be in a leadership position in 2017. Or elected in 2018. Never happen, but I can hope…
Comment by Archiesmom Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 11:54 am
In the hostage taking business, their suffering is the fault of those refusing to give in to ransom, and often that blame extends to the hostages themselves. Their suffering counts for nothing.
Comment by Wensicia Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 12:09 pm
+++- crazybleedingheart - Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 11:08 am:
==Emily might have some important conversations with the people who are in the way of saving her people.==
Saving them from whom? ++++
Maybe the tambourine is so loud, you can’t hear whom?
Comment by A guy Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 12:11 pm
==- Union Man - Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 9:59 am:==
The Civil War, Reconstruction, the Red Scare, World War II, Vietnam. In fact, the state has always managed to have a budget until a one Mister Bruce Vincent Rauner took the helm.
Comment by Precinct Captain Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 12:21 pm
==Maybe the tambourine is so loud, you can’t hear whom?==
Explain, please.
Comment by crazybleedingheart Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 1:03 pm
Honeybee - tell your structural engineer lady to go to the Illinois Association of County Engineers website http://www.iaceng.org
Click of “Classifieds” tab and scroll down to the Montgomery County ad.
If your structural engineer lady has kept up with her PE and SE licenses, she may be a good candidate. I know some counties have hired SE with the intent that they will do the bridge design work in-house rather than hiring a consultant.
I feel for your SE lady. I know that the civil engineering field is going through a real tough time.
Comment by Huh? Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 2:02 pm
Honeybear, damn auto correct
Comment by Huh? Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 2:03 pm
Thanks huh, but there’s no way for me to get ahold of her. As effectively homeless she uses our FCRC address. She has no number and I actually asked her if she’d kept up her licensing etc, but it lapsed because of her homelessness. We can only pray at this point. I put her in the que for the new EPIC program but it’s a longshot.
Comment by Honeybear Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 2:20 pm
“We can only pray at this point.”
The Illinois social services safety net in a nutshell.
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 6:58 pm
In case anyone needed reminded…..THIS is our Governor in word and deed…..
“Crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage to change … and we’ve got to use that leverage of the crisis to force structural change.”
Comment by btowntruth Thursday, May 26, 16 @ 9:29 pm
Suicides are an inevitable outcome of the administration’s withdrawal of psychiatry contracts for state funded community mental health centers in FY 2016.
Comment by splash Friday, May 27, 16 @ 3:45 pm