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The damage done

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* Dean Olsen at the SJ-R has an excellent and comprehensive look at how social service agencies are still trying to recover a year after the impasse ended…

In the 12 months since then, providers of human services and health care that endured historic payment delays said they have recovered to varying degrees and tried to restore services. But many said damage to local and statewide social-service “safety nets” has only begun to be repaired.

Even though Rauner and the General Assembly recently approved a fiscal 2019 budget on a bipartisan basis, human-service providers said still-unfilled gaps in payment and payment delays connected with the impasse only added to what they say is the state’s chronic underfunding of human services, a situation lasting a decade or more. […]

The impasse has had a lingering impact on staff morale and hampered long-term planning efforts for Sojourn Shelter and Services, chief executive officer Angela Bertoni said.

Sojourn, which provides a shelter in Springfield for domestic violence victims, went 14 months without state funding, “so that was difficult,” she said.

The agency had to work hard for a time to dispel rumors among potential clients that Sojourn had closed, she said.

Go read the whole thing.

* Doug Finke takes a look at the state of the government’s finances…

During the height of the state’s budget impasse, Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office regularly had to “triage” bills.

It was a process where businesses or organizations facing severe financial problems had their payments moved to the head of the line to stave off disaster.

Now Illinois has its second full-year budget in a row in place, but the triaging of bills goes on.

“We still get that. We get it all of the time,” Mendoza said last week. “We still continue to get people who, they’ve been so decimated. They’ve tapped out every line of credit. They have a very difficult time building their credit back up. Not a tone has changed for us. It’s just perhaps these cases are invisible because we now have budgets.”

* And Brenden Moore looks at the lingering impacts on the capital city…

With about a year having passed since then, many say the Springfield area weathered the storm as well as it could have and is now in recovery. Yet many are taking a wait-and-see approach to determine if this newfound certainty is long-lasting.

“I think it’s going to take really a couple of cycles where the legislature and the governor get their work done on time, the budget is balanced, the time to pay bills continues to go down and get in a more stable place,” Jimenez said.

“Certainty” and “stability” were the buzzwords most often used by business owners and city leaders to describe what has changed in the last year.

“The small businesses where you might stop in and buy a gift or you might buy some clothing or something, that was impacted because there was so much uncertainty with state workers,” said Lisa Stott Clemmons, executive director of Downtown Springfield Inc. “And there’s still a little bit of uncertainty about the AFSCME contract and things like that. But at that time, it was literally at what point is the government going to shut down.” […]

The state still owes the City Water, Light and Power about $1.5 million, according to the comptroller’s office. However, this pales in comparison to 2016 — a year into the budget impasse — when the state racked up as much as $12 million in unpaid utility bills, leading CWLP to threaten to cut off services.

Good work by solid reporters.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 9:17 am

Comments

Very solid work on the damage inflicted on real people by Rauner’s willful Social Darwinism.

It’s shameful that Illinois Dems didn’t have a communications platform in place to document and call attention to the squeeze-the-beast assault while it was taking place.

They had the ways and means to do so.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 9:33 am
Also GREAT work by Lisa Clemmons Stott, a very solid and talented ED who is always on top of issues impacting downtown Springfield with her ear to the ground and who is
simultaneously able to work w city officials regardless of ideology.

(Lisa is another former IL Leg Staff Intern Program, class of 1994-95).

Comment by low level Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 10:03 am
Yes indeed Word. The Dems were complicit in the destruction.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 10:04 am
–The Dems were complicit in the destruction.–

Complicit is not the word. Not with dozens of failed overrides.

They were failures, in that they didn’t employ a post-Guttenberg communications strategy to fight in the arena of public opinion.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 10:09 am
^”Dems were complicit in the destruction”. Huh?
When Rauner not only didnt have a balanced budget but indeed, no budget at all?

You can see the impact on the streets of Chicago from this social service disaster. More and more homeless, more young people. It always seemed to me its better for business that poor people be given services and affordable housing, as it tends to hinder business development if executives must keep walking over people w no place to go.

Comment by low level Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 10:14 am
===The Dems were complicit in the destruction.===

If you mean Franks, Drury, and Dunkin, then yes, those Democrats.

If not, then you weren’t paying much attention.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 10:23 am
If the positions were reversed, Ruiner would be bashing JB mercilessly w locally specific details on cuts, payment delays, jobs lost, clients dropped, etc. For ex., the sjr article is a made-for-tv scrolling ad for spfld. You could do the same for each tv market. It would put rauner on the deensive every time he does a happy talk appearance locally. Its way overdue.

Comment by Langhorne Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 10:42 am
==They were failures, in that they didn’t employ a post-Guttenberg communications strategy to fight in the arena of public opinion.==

Reason #2 why Madigan should be forced out of the party for good by team Pritzker. For all of the descriptions as him being the “great and powerful Oz”, his apparatus isn’t any good at 21st century politics. Madigan is only Madigan because of the overwhelming number of dem voters in Illinois. DPI has become lazy and incompetent, won’t get any better until new leadership is installed.

To the post, yes - great work by these reporters. But will these stories make any difference in voting patterns among those effected by the impass? Stories like these should be a driving factor in convincing those in the dem coalition of voters of how important it is to vote, in every single election, both primary and general. I’m not convinced it will. Dem turnout will be higher this year because trump, but I doubt if it will last.

Comment by Lester Holt’s Mustache Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 10:46 am
===If you mean Franks, Drury, and Dunkin, then yes, those Democrats.===

As individuals, those three were the biggest enablers. As a party, the Dems lacked the communications necessary “to document and call attention to the squeeze-the-beast assault while it was taking place” as Word points out. Which makes them complicit in my mind. I’m not absolving Rauner and the Raunerites from responsibility here, just observing that the Dems could’ve/should’ve done more to try and stop it.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 11:23 am
JB should be running localized tv ads, detailing specific cuts, job loss, payment delays, dollars lost, etc. if positions were reversed, Rauner would be beating JB on this mercilessly. The sjr article is a great example of the content.

Comment by Langhorne Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 11:25 am
===As a party, the Dems lacked the communications necessary “to document and call attention to the squeeze-the-beast assault while it was taking place” as Word points out. ===

… as been pointed out since Rauner took the oath with the wrong have raised.

You think… messaging is more important… than Rauner successfully upholding, at that time 66 of 67 vetoes.

Hmm.

Messaging or not, those vetos being upheld are far more impactful… because they were the levers yo reverse the Raunerism damage.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 11:45 am
===You think… messaging is more important… than Rauner successfully upholding, at that time 66 of 67 vetoes.===

No, I don’t. All I’m saying is had the Dems’ communication been better some of those votes enabling the squeezing of social services may not have been so comfortable. Some legislators finally ’saw the light’ but it was too late by then for many of the providers being squeezed.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 12:07 pm
===All I’m saying is had the Dems’ communication been better some of those votes enabling the squeezing of social services may not have been so comfortable.===

Rauner had $20 million in hand to cause “no $&@#% problems”…

The Raunerites picked up seats in the presidential year election.

That GA, those Raunerites, they stayed with the money.

Drury, Franks, and Dunkin… they weren’t swayed.

All three will be gone in 2019… but the 99th GA, it was always about the “phony veto-proof” majority failing to override, 66 of 67 vetoes.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 12:14 pm
@OW
Points taken. For some (many?) money will always trump ethics and honest representation. Rauner found the weak spots and used them to his advantage. He was prepared and his game plan worked long enough to insure some providers will never be heard from again.

Comment by Cubs in '16 Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 12:26 pm
But didn’t we have Mark Janus -bravely- trying to change the world, while suffering the horrific burden of the Union negotiating better pay and benefits for him and his family?

Jesus dying on the cross is small potatoes compared to this!

Comment by Mike Cirrincione Monday, Jul 2, 18 @ 12:49 pm