Humans services spending restored as part of larger budget deal

By Ashley Griffin

As part of legislation that will keep some state institutions open through the current fiscal year, the Illinois General Assembly also approved more spending for some human services programs.

With all eyes on a plan to halt state facility closures and avert 1,900 layoff, the General Assembly was able to quietly restore millions to some human services programs statewide in cash-stricken times.

Teen Parent Services, which helps low-income parents younger than 20 receive their GEDs and offers parent training classes, received $1.4 million under Senate Bill 2412.“Redeploy Illinois,” a program designed to provide services to youth 13 to 18 years old who are in the juvenile system and are at high risk of being committed to the Department of Corrections, received $2.4 million.

Legislators also allocated $1.4 million to the state’s Homeless Prevention program. Sen. Heather Steans, one of the sponsors of the bill, said that if programs to address homelessness did not receive funding now, it would lead to larger problems and costs for the state because more people would end up in emergency rooms, institutionalized and on the streets. “We were making sure it was getting maintained, not cut out completely,” said Steans, a Chicago Democrat. Senate Democrats pushed for more human services spending last summer but lost when the House and Gov. Pat Quinn refused to go along with the plan.

The Homeless Prevention program was designed to help provide rental assistance, utility assistance and supportive services to individuals and families who are at risk of being evicted or entering foreclosure on their homes. For the past five years, the program has provided counseling, job preparation and assistance with rent or security deposits. It is administered by six centers in the Chicago area and more than 75 sites statewide that aim to help families remain in their homes by offering various programs such a one-month rental-assistance program and emergency funds for families.

According to the Department of Human Service’s website, the program served more than 14,000 households in Fiscal Year 2007. The state’s economic downturn has brought a growing demand for social services and left the state climbing to the top of the nation’s largest inventory of foreclosed homes. A May 2011 RealtyTrac report showed the Chicago metropolitan area had 118,776 homes in foreclosure.

“I think there’s a lot of cold people in the street in the winter months, and homeless families have it the worst. … At the end of the day, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to make an inhuman line item to cut the program,” said Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, a Democrat from Chicago. Currently, more than 14,000 Illinoisans experience homelessness each night, according to a report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Although some legislators pushed for the increase in spending for human services, a recent budget projection from Quinn revealed the state plans to spend $507 million more than it will take in during the current fiscal year. The state is also set to hit $7 billion in overdue bills to vendors — including human service providers — by the end of FY 2012. As part of the projection, Quinn called for a 9 percent cut to state spending, with the exception of education and health care, paving the way for potentially large human services cuts in FY 2013.

While Feigenholtz acknowledges that FY 2012 was a difficult budget year, she said the state must address the backlog of bills, and she predicted that the next budget could possibly send major cuts to human services. “We have to start paying our bills and stop spending,” Feigenholtz said. “As bad as last year was, it may be a walk in the park compared to this year budget.”

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Home services grant to be cut October 1

By Bethany Jaeger
A short-term borrowing plan approved by the General Assembly to prevent drastic cuts to human services might not be enough to prevent layoffs of workers who advocate for people with disabilities throughout the state.

A network of about two-dozen Centers for Independent Living were told earlier this month that starting October 1, a state grant that pays for recruiting and training personal assistants for individuals with severe disabilities would be cut. The so-called Home Services grant is funded through the Illinois Department of Human Services. It also pays for training of the people with the disabilities so they understand their civil rights when working with caseworkers and so they learn ways to manage their personal assistants.


The 23 Centers for Independent Living that operate throughout the state run on shoestring budgets, said Ann Ford, executive director of the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living based in Springfield. They already anticipated a 10 percent reduction in funding as part of the fiscal year 2010 budget agreement, which is expected to result in furlough days and potential layoffs. Cutting the Home Services grant on top of that would affect between 2,500 and 3,000 individuals who are served under the program each year, according to Ford.

For Mark Karner, director of advocacy for Progress Center for Independent Living in Forest Park, that means he’s out of a job Thursday. Karner also has multiple disabilities and needs a machine to help him breathe and a home aide to help him get out of bed each morning, among other daily functions. He expects to be on a job hunt, or, if he couldn’t find a flexible employer, then he would have to file for unemployment or Social Security, which he has not had since before he started working at Progress Center 16 years ago.

Tom Green, spokesman for the Department of Human Services, said it all comes down to the budget. “It’s the toughest financial challenge that Illinois has ever had. Everyone has to make sacrifices. There’s a limited amount of revenue in the budget that was passed by the General Assembly, not enough to cover all the expenses. And DHS has made cuts in all budget areas.”

He added that cuts to community-based services would have been far deeper, as much as 50 percent, without a $3.4 billion borrowing plan approved by the General Assembly in July. About $2.2 billion of that was slated for community-based human services. But that same budget agreement also relies on Quinn reducing another $1 billion in spending. The General Assembly gave Quinn unprecedented discretion in where to cut.

Ford said she was “very disappointed” in that budget agreement.

“We continue to borrow. We don’t really act like adults and look at what do we need to do to have enough revenue in this state to support the programs that allow some people some dignity in their lives,” she said. “It’s a huge disappointment to me that that was the option that was chosen, and it’s a bigger disappointment to me that the General Assembly then went home and said to the governor, ‘Do whatever you want to do.’”

On July 31, Quinn said that he would spread the cuts out in a way that would maximize federal matching and stimulus funds. And he said he would fund health-related initiatives that focus on disease prevention and that reduce demand for more expensive services later.

Karner said zeroing out the Human Services grant would do the opposite. Mike Ervin, for instance, needs the personal assistants. But he’s lived in his own condominium in Chicago as a freelance writer, a playwright and a community activist, and he’s not enrolled in Medicaid. Losing the personal assistants grant program, Ervin said, would take the system back 30 years. “Not only does it keep me out of nursing homes, but I employ five people. And it keeps us paying whatever taxes we do. It’s just positive all the way around. It’s the wave of the future, it’s the way the future should be going. And cutting it just such a huge regression.”

Karner said a meeting for consumers affected by the Home Services grant is scheduled in Chicago Friday. “I guess there’s still some glimmer of hope that the governor will change his mind before October 1,” he said.

Rallies against the cuts also are scheduled next Monday in Springfield and Chicago. Ford said if the centers don’t know by mid-September whether the grant will be restored, more layoffs are expected.

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Budget deal reached but only builds a bridge

By Bethany Jaeger, with Jamey Dunn and Hilary Russell contributing
The state now has an operating budget in place, although the legislature likely will have to address a remaining $4 billion to $5 billion deficit later this year or early next year. Gov. Pat Quinn enacted the 12-month spending plan soon after it won approval by the General Assembly Wednesday night.

Numerous legislators described the package as less than ideal, the least bad option or a bridge to buy time until lawmakers agree on alternative revenue sources and long-term reforms. Instead of generating new revenue through a state income tax, the spending plan relies on various forms of borrowing and debt instruments.


Several lawmakers echoed the sentiments of House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie: “We have run out of options,” just as state workers and agencies have “run out of time.”

The governor signed the spending portion of the bill (Senate Bill 1216) late Wednesday night, which will allow the comptroller’s office to issue hard copies of paychecks to 5,000 to 6,000 state employees Thursday, said Carol Knowles, spokeswoman for the comptroller.

Human service agencies are in a less certain position. While community-based providers received some assurance of state support, the governor will have wide discretion when deciding how to divvy out limited remaining funds and where to further reduce spending.

The budget deal primarily relies on borrowing to pay public employee pensions, borrowing from state agencies and essentially borrowing from Medicaid providers that don’t receive federal stimulus funds because the payment cycle is likely to lengthen.

Sen. Donne Trotter, a Chicago Democrat and budget negotiator for his caucus, said, “It’s not the best deal, but it will keep us going until we can really sit down and get a grasp on how we’re going to change doing business here in the state of Illinois.”

Even Rep. Bill Black, a Danville Republican, who berated the recent budget-making process as primarily behind closed doors and inadequate for essential state services, ended up voting for the bill that he disliked. “Because there is no alternative,” he said afterward.

Spending = SB 1216
Grant-funded services will receive an average of 86 percent of the funding level originally sought by the governor, while much of state government operations will receive about the same level as last fiscal year.

The Illinois Department of Transportation will get some extra money to hire engineers who will handle the increased workload generated by the federal stimulus package and state’s $31 billion capital construction program recently enacted.

Cost-cutting measures (included in the BIMP) = SB 1912
There will be significant cuts, but the legislature left it up to the governor to decide when and where. Quinn also will have authority to take “administrative charge backs,” which basically are loans from state agencies that the state has to repay.

Members of the executive branch and of the General Assembly will have to take 12 unpaid days off, which amounts to about 4.5 percent of legislators’ annual salaries and stipends, according to Rep. Frank Mautino, assistant majority leader from Spring Valley. The governor also said he hopes to negotiate furlough days with unionized employees to avert the need for layoffs as large as 2,600 workers.

The governor now has authority to ask agencies to reserve a percentage of their funding in an attempt to save an additional $1.1 billion (on top of the $1 billion he’s already supposed to cut). He would have a rare range of flexibility in deciding how to cut that $1.1 billion.

“There is a check on it, but it’s a much greater latitude than anyone’s ever had, the first year of [former Gov. Rod] Blagojevich included,” Mautino said. If Quinn if were to lower a service provider’s payment rate or raise co-payment amounts for people enrolled in state-sponsored programs, then he would have to go first get approval from the legislative panel called the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules.

The governor won’t need that committee’s approval to tell state agencies to reserve a percentage of their funds to, say, hold the line on travel costs. To close a prison or other state facility, he would still have to go through a public review process of another legislative panel, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability.

Elementary and secondary schools will receive about $161 more in general state aid per student than they received last year, but that’s less than the governor originally planned. Mautino said the hope among some lawmakers is that he’ll put more of his discretionary spending money into grants for early childhood education and other education-related programs.

Borrowing = SB 1292
One of the main revenue sources that prevented the need for deeper cuts is a short-term borrowing scheme that increased to about $3.5 billion. Of that, $2.2 billion will go to community-based human services. The governor will have wide discretion in spending the remaining $1.2 billion.

Rep. Patricia Bellock, a Hinsdale Republican, said such groups as substance abuse providers fear that their funding will remain cut because their services are not matched by federal Medicaid reimbursements. Currie said during floor debate that the governor would have discretion to shift money to those services.

The borrowing scheme received mixed reactions. “This is one of the only cards we have left on the table,” said Rep. Kevin McCarthy, an Orland Park Democrat.

“We are not acting prudently,” said Rep. Jack Franks, a Marengo Democrat. “This will not balance the budget. Let’s not kid ourselves. This is only smoke and mirrors.”

Rep. Dave Winters, a Shirland Republican, added that borrowing this year would automatically create a budget hole next year because it’s a one-time revenue source that will have to be repaid by about $750 million a year. Sen. Bill Brady, a Republican from Bloomington, said that the budget sets the state up to fall off of a “financial cliff” next year because it relies on short-term borrowing and stimulus funds that will not be available in the future.

What’s not in the budget?
What the budget deal will not do is address the state’s multibillion-dollar backlog of unpaid bills. In fact, the spending plan might even create longer payment delays for providers that don’t receive extra federal stimulus funds for Medicaid reimbursements.

The state will maintain payment cycles for providers such as hospitals that capture extra federal stimulus funds. That does not include pharmacists or some grant-funded human services, however.

Sen. Jeff Schoenberg, an Evanston Democrat, said the longer-term structural deficit will continue to plague state-funded services. “One thing that we’ll know with absolute certainty is that all of the hospitals, nursing homes and community-based health and human service providers will continue to experience severe cash flow problems,” particularly as the economic downturn makes it harder for them to access lines of credit, said Schoenberg, who said he’s working on two backup proposals if the borrowing schemes don’t pan out as hoped.

What’s next?
The legislature adjourned without a date certain to return, although the annual fall “veto session” is scheduled to start October 14.

When the legislature comes back, it’ll have an opportunity to reassess whether the revenue outlook improved from the economic stimulus and state construction programs. And when crafting next year’s budget, they won’t have to tackle as large of a pension payment ($4 billion topped a ramped-up payment schedule this year).

But Senate President John Cullerton said the state won’t be able to borrow its way through another year and that a tax increase is “inevitable.” “Now you see why we need the tax increase, if for no other reason than to pay [bills] instead of borrowing.”

Chicago Democrat Sen. James Meeks, longtime advocate for an income tax increase similar to House Bill 174 that the Senate approved in May, was absent from the floor during the vote. Meeks has campaigned for the income tax increase because he said it would provide property tax relief and create more equitable funding for education. Earlier in the day, Meeks said: “You either borrow or you vote for revenue. So since I voted for revenue, I’m not voting for borrowing.”

Budget bills

FYI: These are the five bills the governor signed Wednesday night (the links might take a little bit longer to work):

• SB 1216 = spending bill
• SB 1292 = bonding bill ($3.5 billion)
• SB 1912 = budget implementation bill (with cost-cutting measures)
• SB 1433 = fund sweeps
• HB 2206 = designates state and federal funds (link not available, yet)

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12-month budget deal within reach

By Bethany Jaeger, with Jamey Dunn contributing
The top four legislative leaders and the governor have a general agreement to work toward a full 12-month budget, as opposed to a partial-year budget that would last only five months, without raising income taxes.

But even with a general agreement, the state still is likely to face a deficit that the legislature would have to address this fall or winter, possibly during its annual fall “veto” session. The size of that deficit, however, is still unknown or, at least, debatable. The governor’s most recent estimate is a $9.2 billion gap in revenues versus spending.

The leaders met twice with the governor Tuesday. Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said after the second meeting that while the state would still have a massive backlog of unpaid bills, the revenue outlook could improve with activity from the federal stimulus package, the statewide construction program enacted Monday and other longer-term reforms to Medicaid and pension liabilities sought by Republicans. “So we have to wait and see how the reforms and how the stimulus elements come together, and that may improve our revenue position,” she said. “I don’t know that. But I do know, as of tonight, we should avoid having a meltdown in state government.”

Not all were so sure. “They’re close," said Rep. Art Turner, a Chicago Democrat, "but … close counts in horseshoes. This is politics. We still haven’t gotten there, yet.”

The new fiscal year started July 1. Layoff notices to state employees went out July 7. Numerous human services providers that get state funding have reduced programs and laid off their own employees because their shoestring budgets can’t survive without knowing when they would receive their next state payments.

The general agreement among legislative leaders includes enacting a 12-month budget that relies on revenue from refinancing state debt (Senate Bill 1609, which already was enacted), sweeping dedicated funds (SB 1433) and borrowing more money. The short-term borrowing scheme has changed from its original version. Instead of floating $2.2 billion in bonds, the state would float $3.6 billion. The governor also would still have to cut an additional $1 billion in spending. The legislature would give him wide discretion to cut as he saw fit.

The short-term borrowing would help the state make its $4 billion payment into the public employee pension system this fiscal year. Borrowing would free up money that would be used to prevent severe cuts to community-based services. While numbers vary, one estimate by a House Democrat is that the new budget deal could result in service providers receiving about a 13 percent cut, as opposed to a 50 percent cut, as previously approved. The governor vetoed that measure (SB 1197).

Human services

So instead of the so-called 50 percent budget for human services, providers would get about 87 percent of what they received in state support last fiscal year.

“We’re getting very close to what [the governor] was looking for,” said House Minority Leader Tom Cross. But, he added, the situation has been painted as more severe than it needed to be. “I think the approach a month ago was to attempt to scare legislators into a tax increase. I didn’t think that was a good approach,” Cross said. “I think at the end of the day, [cuts to human services] will not be nearly as severely as the governor portrayed six weeks ago.”

Both Republican leaders and Senate President John Cullerton added that state employees and service providers now need reassurance that they’ll still get paid. “Unfortunately, some people come to believe that they’re going to be shut down, that their not-for-profit agencies are not going to be able to operate,” Cullerton said. “And that’s been unfortunate because that was never the case, never had to be the case.”

Under the new version of a budget deal, about $2.2 billion of the short-term borrowing scheme would benefit human services. Quinn would be able to decide how to spend the additional $1.3 billion that the legislature is expected to add to the borrowing scheme Wednesday.

Income tax update

An income tax increase temporarily is off the table. Quinn recently said he would delay his campaign for a tax increase until the fall or winter. Fewer votes would be needed in January. And some legislators have requested the governor “tone down the rhetoric” for the next few months, which would allow them to find out whether they face serious opponents in the 2010 elections before being called to vote on a tax increase.

But the idea of a tax hike still has support, particularly among Senate Democrats. “It’s not dead,” said Sen. Terry Link, a Waukegan Democrat. “It may be on pause, but it’s definitely not dead.” Sooner or later, he added, state government will have to have a “revenue infusion” to keep operating.

Cullerton gave a sneak peak into his campaign for a tax increase when he seeks support from Republicans. He said if the legislature had approved an income tax increase this year, the state could have used the revenue to pay its backlogged bills rather than borrowing money to do so. “That would be a conservative, responsible response to a fiscal crisis,” he said. “That’s what our income tax increase could be characterized as.”

After spending most of the day in closed-door meetings, some legislators headed to the Major League Baseball All Star baseball game in St. Louis, where President Barack Obama was scheduled to toss the ceremonial opening pitch.

The legislative leaders are scheduled to meet again at 11 a.m. Wednesday. And they expect to take action on parts of the budget deal as early as Wednesday afternoon.

AFSCME lawsuit

If things fall into place tomorrow, then some groups of state workers would be paid up to a few days late. In an attempt to ensure that state workers continue to get paid if things fall apart and a budget is not in place, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 filed a lawsuit today in St. Clair County.

The union made a similar move in 2007 when the legislature failed to produce a budget by the end of the fiscal year. AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said, “Unfortunately, we’re in the same boat.” The lawsuit would apply to all state employees.

“The fundamental legal principles are the same for any state employee,” Lindall said. “If you work, you are entitled to be paid in full and on time for that work.” He added that if lawmakers can agree on a budget in the next few days, the suit would not be necessary.

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Everything in limbo

By Bethany Jaeger, with Jamey Dunn and Hilary Russell contributing
Illinois’ human service providers, as well as other state contractors, remain in limbo as to whether they’ll receive state funding after July 1. The General Assembly finished its special legislative session this afternoon without sending a spending plan to the governor. Lawmakers aren’t scheduled to return until Monday afternoon (the Senate won’t be back until Tuesday), which some providers said would be too late. Providers, many of whom rallied at the Capitol yesterday, anticipate having to close their doors or lay off employees without a state operating budget in place by then.



“What’s going on right now is cruel, it’s cynical and it doesn’t need to be happening. And it should have been addressed this week,” Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said after the legislature adjourned. She added: “There is a lack of clarity, a lack of leadership, in terms of what is going on. And in the meantime, people are dangling in the wind thinking that their lives are going to be inextricably altered.”

She proposed enacting a temporary budget to keep state services going, uninterrupted, and to give service providers more predictability.

Gov. Pat Quinn continues to publicly reject the idea of a temporary budget and said lawmakers still have time to enact a full-year balanced budget within six days. But he said balancing the budget, which he projects will carry a $9.2 billion deficit, will require a two-year income tax increase to generate $4.2 billion. (Comptroller Dan Hynes calculated the deficit at $7 billion.)

Legislative leaders of both political parties have cast doubt on the governor’s ability to gain enough votes in each chamber to approve a tax increase by July 1, although House Minority Leader Tom Cross said a few of his members are leaning toward a tax increase if they see action on other efficiencies and long-term spending reforms first.

Senate Democrats maintain that they approved a version of a permanent income tax increase in House Bill 174, which never got called for a vote in the House. According to Sen. James Meeks, the caucus doesn’t want to give up on the idea of offering property tax relief and increased education funding. Meeks said a temporary increase would result in a permanent increase in two years. “Temporary should scream out to everybody saying, ‘In two years, they’ll be back.’”

There could be more immediate support for a short-term borrowing scheme. A plan backed by Quinn would issue pension obligation notes rather than bonds, which typically are repaid over longer periods of time with higher interest costs. The House advanced the plan, Senate Bill 415, today. It would allow the state to make its full contribution into the public employee pension systems and free up $2.2 billion to help plug the deficit.

“If we get $2 billion to help close the deficit, that’s a good thing,” Quinn said after finishing a series of meetings with all four legislative caucuses. “We’re making progress, but we still have $7 billion to go.”

The governor and all four caucuses appear to agree one goal: to reduce spending by another $1 billion. But they might disagree on how to do that.

Quinn said his administration could save about $125 million by mandating 12 unpaid days off, or furlough days, for state employees, including unionized workers. Layoffs also could be considered, he said, although he added that he wouldn’t pursue layoffs until after he and the General Assembly settled on whether the state would generate new revenues first. “Under our contract, we can lay off employees if we don’t have the money to pay them,” he said.

Anders Lindall, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said union leaders already met with the administration last week and determined that furlough days and layoffs wouldn’t save significant amounts of money. Henry Bayer, Council 31 executive director, said last week that even if every state employee worked the entire year unpaid, the state would only save about $3 billion. Lindall added this afternoon, “Any number of furlough days would be an insignificant savings to the state but a very real reduction in services.”

Cross said his caucus agrees with the need to look for $1 billion in cuts and recommends moratoriums on programs, furlough days and salary freezes, as well as reduced travel budgets.

Capital and recall
Two other items on hold include the $29 billion capital construction program and a provision that would allow voters to decide whether they wanted to change the state Constitution so they could recall the sitting governor.

Quinn said he will not sign the construction program without an operating budget in place. Democratic Sens. Martin Sandoval of Chicago and John Sullivan of Rushville said the capital plan and the operating budget have nothing to do with one another. In a Statehouse news conference, they joined organized labor groups to say Quinn has fallen through on his promise to immediately put people to work. "People are falling off the edge, losing their homes, having a very difficult time making ends meet, and he’s decided to hold the jobs bill as a political football until he gets his tax hike,” Sandoval said, citing the state’s 10.1 percent unemployment rate.

On the other hand, the Senate Democrats have held one of Quinn’s initiatives, House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 31: a recall provision. Senate President John Cullerton said yesterday he would not call the provision for a vote until Quinn signed an ethics package that would limit the amount individuals, businesses and political organizations could donate to candidates. However, the Senate hasn’t even sent the measure, HB 7, to the governor’s desk.

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Pension plan delays tax hike vote, for now

By Bethany Jaeger, with Jamey Dunn and Hilary Russell contributing
The latest scheme for the General Assembly to get closer to a balanced budget is to borrow money to fully pay the state’s contribution into the public employee pension system and to free up about $2 billion to help stave off deep cuts to human services.


This on a day when more than 5,000 advocates, parents and children rallied at the Capitol with Gov. Pat Quinn to urge an income tax increase to help fight those cuts. Top Democratic legislators indicated today, however, that they would not vote for an income tax increase this week. And if they did, there wouldn’t be enough support among Democrats to approve it without Republican votes. The GOP remains united against a tax increase, at least, officially. Some Republican members in both chambers have privately said they could support a tax increase but have stuck with their caucuses.

Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno said that Republicans are not ready to vote for an income tax increase and described the projected cuts to human services as a “cynical ploy,” adding that spending reductions could be spread fairly across all areas of state government.

The idea to issue pension obligation notes, which we wrote about earlier this week, poses a less politically risky option. The short-term borrowing plan would be repaid within five years and would fund the state’s $4 billion contribution into the public employee pension system for the fiscal year that starts July 1.

It’s generally agreed that the plan would free up about $2.2 billion, which the General Assembly would put into the general revenue fund and give the governor, essentially, a blank check. The ball would be in Quinn’s court, then, to cut or to plug where he saw fit.

“This is more discretion than we’ve ever given any other governor, simply because the times require it,” said Rep. Frank Mautino, assistant majority leader from Spring Valley.

He said the pension obligation notes would combine with previously approved authority to sweep extra money (Senate Bill 1433) out of dedicated funds and to refinance other state debt (SB 1609). All three revenue sources combined would allow the spending authority to come within $2 billion of the governor’s proposed budget. Quinn wanted authority to spend $28 billion. The latest plan would authorize about $26 billion, meaning he would still have to cut back spending.

The legislature could vote on the pension plan Wednesday, according to Mautino.

A vote on Quinn’s proposed two-year tax hike, however, would not happen until the governor provided a list of specific cuts he would make if he didn’t have new tax revenues to spend, according to several House Democrats. His temporary tax increase would generate about $4.5 billion. But there’s still debate about the size of the budget deficit, said Rep. Art Turner, deputy majority leader from Chicago.

“The biggest issue right now is just trying to put the bean counters together to come up with what’s the agreed number,” he said. “So then from there, we can … say, ‘What’s going to be the number that we have to use in terms of the cuts?’”

A Republican, Rep. Richard Myers of Colchester, said he’d be willing to look at a tax increase if he knew where the money was specifically going to be spent.

Comptroller Dan Hynes added to the debate with a letter to the governor. He wrote: “I believe that part of your difficulty in obtaining votes for an income tax increase is the fact that the public is confused about how much money is really needed to fix the deficit. Legislators are, therefore, understandably reluctant to vote for an ever-changing proposal for an ill-defined problem. In a sense, we have all been given a false choice: raise taxes by $4 [billion] to $5 billion or cut human services by the same amount.”

He proposed starting over, operating on a 60-day budget to keep services going while the legislature found more ways to cut spending. He cited across-the-board cuts to contracts, grants and agency spending. And then he suggested such new revenue sources as an expansion of the sales tax, building new casinos and increasing cigarette taxes. All of those proposals came up during the spring legislative session but failed to advance in both chambers.

Senate Democrats point to their version of an income tax increase, which also would offer property tax relief and an expansion of the sales tax. Senate President John Cullerton said his caucus already took the hard vote on House Bill 174 last month and that it’s up to the other caucuses to make the next move. “Anything is negotiable, as long as we keep the principles in mind that we need to balance our budget and not have these draconian cuts that all the people surrounding the capital are complaining about today.”

Cullerton added that his caucus would not vote on the governor’s desired “recall” provision until Quinn enacted campaign finance reforms approved by the legislature last month. The House already approved the recall provision, which would allow voters to decide whether to change the state Constitution so they could recall the governor at the time. The provision awaits final action in the Senate.

The rally
By Hilary Russell and Jamey Dunn, with Bethany Jaeger contributing
The secretary of state’s office confirmed that more than 5,000 people attended the rally coordinated by numerous social service providers and public employee unions. Police temporarily blocked more people from entering the Capitol out of safety concerns, said Henry Haupt, spokesman for the secretary of state.

The temperature rose as participants chanted, “People before politics,” “Do the people’s work,” and “No budget cuts.” Signs advocated for everything from substance abuse treatment services to early childhood education and autism. The anecdotes were endless.

For instance, Michelle Lefrere, who has epilepsy and volunteers with Springfield’s Epilepsy Resource Center, said without an income tax increase, the doors to the center would close June 30. Having used the center since the age of 9 and turning 40 next year, she said: “There will be no counseling, no recommendations to doctors, no job placement. There won’t be any help for people with epilepsy in Springfield or the certain communities. There won’t be any money for research.”

After the rally, Quinn remained optimistic that the legislature would vote on a tax increase by June 30, the end of the fiscal year. In any case, he said, “I am not going to preside over a dismantling of the fundamental human safety net that we are proud of in Illinois.”

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Quinn: Won't cut human service funding in half

By Bethany Jaeger
Without a state budget in place eight days before a new fiscal year starts, Gov. Pat Quinn said in Springfield on Monday that he would not accept a budget proposal that would chop state funding for human services by half, as advanced by Democrats May 31.



“So I want to make that clear to our legislators this week that whatever has been concocted up to now is insufficient, and hopefully we can work together to repair the oversights in revenue,” he said, previewing Tuesday’s special legislative session. “You can’t have a balanced [budget] if you’re short billions of dollars.”

His office estimates an $11.6 billion deficit next fiscal year.

But just how he will work with the legislature to enact a balanced budget before July 1 is a mystery, despite Quinn’s optimism that a few legislators who rejected a temporary income tax increase last month would support it this month “under the circumstances.” If an income tax increase failed again, however, he said he would not support the idea of a so-called month-to-month budget to keep the state operating as long as money remained available.

He did not specify how he would prevent cuts to human services, only that even if the state increased the income tax for two years, Illinois would still have to accept a “no-frills, lean government.” But, he added, “That doesn’t mean that the most important things for the most vulnerable people are left behind.”

Quinn has campaigned since last month for a two-year tax hike to stave off deep budget cuts to human services. He even used Monday’s ceremony to honor Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants to seek support from parents in the audience, whom he asked to “invest in our future, even in hard times.” He’s scheduled to continue his campaign Tuesday morning during what’s expected to be a large rally in the Capitol before the legislative session starts.

But approving an income tax increase any time soon will be difficult, given that Democrats have said they don’t have enough votes without Republican support. And Republicans have said they won’t consider a tax increase without action on Medicaid and pension reforms, which could take months to compile and to gain momentum.

Democrats in both chambers approved a bare bones budget at the end of May, but they have prevented the legislation from going to the governor’s desk (see Senate Bill 1197 for the lump sum spending plan; SB 1433 for authority to sweep excess money from dedicated funds; SB 1609 for authority to refinance state debt).

In a light-hearted plea to legislators, Quinn quizzed national spelling bee contestants by asking them to spell such words as “whistleblower,” “gridlock” and “mudslinging.” He asked one student to spell out “fortitude,” which he later defined as “doing very hard things for the common good, worrying about people above and beyond yourself.”

Also Tuesday, Quinn said he hopes the legislature will take another try to approve a measure that would allow voters to decide whether to change the state Constitution so they could recall elected officials. House Joint Resolution 31 passed the House last month and awaits Senate action. And watch for a new short-term borrowing proposal that could help the state fund most of its $4 billion pension contribution next fiscal year.

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Foster care children at risk

By Hilary Russell
If July 1 turns into a "doomsday" for state-funded human services, thousands of children in foster care could lose their homes within three months, according to the Childcare Association of Illinois.


The advocacy group organized a standing-room only rally today in Chicago's James R. Thompson Center to propose severe funding cuts and to encourage lawmakers to find a better way to balance an out-of-whack state budget. Democrats approved a so-called bare bones budget May 31 that would fund human services at half the level proposed by Gov. Pat Quinn, who said he does not intend to sign the budget into law because it carries a $9.2 billion deficit and would require devastating cuts to services for the most vulnerable citizens.

The Childcare Association of Illinois said that within 90 days of the proposed budget taking effect, monthly state payments to foster parents would be cut in half. CORRECTION: The state currently pays $384 per foster child in a home. When the fiscal year begins July 1, that payment would reduce to $192. Caretakers described the decrease as drastic and said it could require families to return the foster children to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Rhonda Hansen, who raises four foster children between ages 4 and 7, faces that possibility. She attended the rally and later said in a phone interview that she not only couldn't afford to care for the children on her part-time wages of $800 a month, but she also couldn't keep working if she lost her childcare services through DCFS.

Foster children cannot be left with a friend or relative unless the individual has gone through a background check and been approved by DCFS, she said.

She added that she worries about what would happen to the children if she gave them up. For instance, two of the children were removed from their original home, Hansen said, after findings of severe neglect and physical abuse by their mother, who is now serving time in prison. They also were removed from a second foster home because, she said, relatives also neglected them. They are both in therapy, another service Hansen said they stand to lose if the budget isn't changed.

“I can't bear thinking about making that call to someone telling them to come get them,” she said.

If Quinn signed the budget as approved by Democrats, about 9,000 foster parents could be affected, according to David Ormsby of the Childcare Association of Illinois.

Gladys Boyd, president of the association and a foster parent in Richton Park, said she, too, would have to return her children to DCFS if the state cuts reimbursement levels.

"These politicians should be ashamed of themselves," she said. "Completely ashamed."

The governor and legislative leaders have been meeting behind closed doors since June 1. Lawmakers are scheduled return to Springfield for a special session Tuesday, seven days before the new fiscal year starts without a budget in place. Quinn's goal is to approve a state income tax increase to avoid cutting or eliminating funding to human services. However, legislative leaders said yesterday that there doesn't appear to be enough support for an income tax increase as early as next week.

This is not the first time DCFS has experienced massive cuts. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the state's child welfare system was in chaos, Ormsby said. More than 50,000 children were in the system at that time, which prompted the state to house them in welfare agencies, where they slept on cots.

Today, there are about 16,000 foster care children in the system. Ormsby said more than half of them could face the same fate.

“This time, with so many cuts, they will be drawing out the pool of foster care parents to some degree,” he said. “Many of the agencies themselves will simply go out of business because of the enormity of the cuts.”

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Quinn: Legislature should return next week

By Bethany Jaeger, Jamey Dunn and Hilary Russell
Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration is starting a full-court press to pressure state lawmakers into approving an income tax increase to help avoid catastrophic cuts, highlighting cuts to human services. The General Assembly approved a bare bones budget at the end of May that would only fund community services by half and, according to the governor’s office, would still carry a $9.2 billion deficit. But the same question remains that loomed May 31: How will Quinn recruit nearly 30 more representatives to support a tax increase when they rejected the idea two weeks ago?

All four top Democratic and Republican leaders are scheduled to meet with Quinn in Chicago tomorrow, when they could talk about whether the General Assembly will be called back to Springfield next week, as Quinn urged. That would leave about one week before the new fiscal year starts and when an operating budget would need to be in place.




Quinn still urges the need to enact a state income tax increase. However, his proposal to temporarily increase the state income tax fell 18 votes short in the House May 31. He now needs to gain 29 more votes to get up to the supermajority needed after May 31.

While enough Democrats in the Senate approved two versions of an income tax increase last month, House Democrats have said they need Republican support before they’d be able to approve new revenue sources. Republicans, however, continue to demand major reforms to the state’s public employee pension system, Medicaid program and other efficiencies before they’ll consider a tax increase.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross’s spokeswoman, Sara Wojcicki, said the GOP Caucus has a series of reform measures (about 31 bills), most of which have been bottled up by Democratic leadership. For instance, House Republicans would target the practice of rolling over the current year’s bills to the next fiscal year, allowing officials to claim the budget is balanced when it actually doesn’t cover expenses. House Bill 4095 would require the state to set new accounting benchmarks before an operating budget could be deemed “balanced.” House Bill 4097 would ban the state from rolling over payments to Medicaid providers and state employee and retiree health benefits.

Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, says her caucus has proposed reforms during the past six years and hasn’t seen progress, including during the last few weeks of meetings between legislative leaders and the governor. “There have been long discussions. Other than that, we haven’t seen much.”

She adds that Radogno believes the cuts to human services highlighted by Quinn’s administration today would be “irresponsible” and that the budget should be looked at in its entirety, not just in one service delivery area.

The legislature has yet to send the so-called bare bones budget to the governor’s desk. But Quinn’s chief of staff, Jerry Stermer, said agencies and community service providers have to act as if the budget situation won’t change before July 1.

Stermer met with human service providers this morning in Chicago and said that the bare bones budget would still fall $9.2 billion short of normal spending levels. He said that would result in layoffs of more than 100,000 people working for community-based social services and up to 10,000 state workers.

State employee unions oppose the idea of laying off workers or asking them to take unpaid days off to help stave the severity of budget cuts. Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31, said in Springfield today: “There is nothing that would alleviate the threat of layoffs short of a tax increase. We don’t have a tax increase, there will be substantial layoffs.” He said even if every state employee worked the entire year unpaid, the state would only save $3 billion, far short of the $9 billion deficit projected by the governor’s office. “That may make some people feel good to think they’re inflicting pain on somebody, but that is not a solution to the problem,” Bayer said. “There is only one solution to the problem.” He referred to tax increases.

Other possible consequences of the bare bones budget laid out by Quinn’s office include:

• Giving foster parents half the money they currently receive to help care for foster children.
• Eliminating daycare for more than 5,250 children of low-income working parents.
• Tripling foster children case loads for Department of Children and Family Service workers.
• Closing 15 DCFS field offices.
• Ending addiction treatment for more than 20,800 clients.
• Closing six state-run psychiatric hospitals.
• Eliminating multiple preventative health care services such as vaccinations for children and cancer screening programs.
• Cutting financial aid to college students by $275 million.

Quinn’s office also said Illinois would lose $2 billion in federal matching funds and some stimulus money.

In Springfield, a local chapter of the Service Employees International Union rallied outside the state Capitol in protest. Gail Hamilton, a home health aide, said if the cuts in human services went through, as many as 80,000 parents would have no place to take their children while they worked. And about 40,000 senior citizens would lose access to home health services and, potentially, end up in more costly nursing home care.

The group staked out offices of representatives who voted “no” on raising the income tax last month. Today, it was two Republicans from the Springfield area, Reps. Raymond Poe and Rich Brauer. On Monday, they targeted two downstate Democrats, Reps. Brandon Phelps and John Bradley, as well as Chicago suburban Republican Rep. Beth Coulson. Last week’s focus was all northern Illinois Democrats: Reps. James Brosnahan, Jack Franks, Michael Zalewski and Kevin McCarthy.

Hamilton said conversations with legislators have been “infuriating.”

“They’ll admit to us that they know we need a tax increase, but when it comes down to it, they don’t have the guts to go through with it.”

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Health of the mental health system

By Hilary Russell
After the legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability recommended last week to close Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park, Gov. Pat Quinn decided this week to conduct his own investigation to determine if the facility should be closed. The committee also recommended closing Tinley Park Mental Health Center, although the governor has not announced if he will conduct an investigation of that facility.




In a statement, Quinn’s office announced the appointment of Anne Shannon to conduct an independent investigation of the allegations made about the Howe Developmental Center that led to the recommendation that it be closed. Shannon is a former president and chief executive officer of a nonprofit organization for people with developmental disabilities.

The goal is to determine if the facility can be remedied to continue operating.

If Howe were to close, members of the American Federation for State, County, and Municipal Employees union would be out of jobs, and patients would be out of their home. Henry Bayer, AFSCME Council 31 executive director, expressed his disapproval of the committee’s decision in a statement.

“At a hastily convened meeting, … nine lawmakers voted to embrace Rod Blagojevich’s scheme to shutter Howe, an essential public health facility that serves individuals with profound developmental disabilities,” Bayer said. “It’s up to Pat Quinn to step in. At stake are the lives of countless individuals with severe mental illnesses and profound developmental disabilities, as well as the jobs of 1,000 dedicated employees.”

An organized group of parents of the residents also opposes the closure. Betty Turturillo, president of Howe Family and Friends, has a 57-year-old daughter who has lived at Howe since 1974. “We feel our loved ones are well taken care of, and many of the people there are older and … are not appropriate for community placement. It’ll be very hard on many of them to be moved, and many of them will not survive the move,” she said. “Howe is not a dumping ground for our relatives.”

Shannon is expected to report her findings to Quinn by the end of June, when a final decision is expected to be made on Howe’s fate.

On the same note, rallies were held in Springfield and Chicago today by advocates for mental health services who believe the only way to preserve and improve the state’s mental health facilities is to raise taxes and invest more money in treatment options. Several state representatives, including Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat, and Patricia Bellock, a Hinsdale Republican, were on hand to give their support.

“One thing we must not do in the process of figuring out the budget is to abandon all of you,” Lang said to the crowd. “We must find a way to find the dollars for treatment in local communities because treatment works.”

“We know we can take people out of nursing home settings and put them into a community setting because they will flourish there,” said Bellock. According to Bellock, by moving developmentally disabled and mentally ill patients out of clinical-type settings and into ones that look and feel more like home, they will make progress, or, at least, be happier.

Mental health advocates fear the state’s $12.4 billion projected budget deficit will lead lawmakers to slice treatment options, a similar concern in previous years. “We are already one of the most underfunded community health service states ranked in the country,” said Mark Heyrman, a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School who helped organize the rally. “Now what’s happened is there are more people with serious mental illnesses in the state prison system than in all of the public and private psychiatric hospitals combined.”

The ninth annual Mental Health Rally and Lobby Day held on the steps of the Capitol brought together mental health-related advocacy organizations and those suffering from mental illness to urge the governor to avoid cutting additional programs and to preserve money designed for treatment and facilities.

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Panel votes to close two health centers

By Hilary Russell

In an 11th-hour move, Gov. Pat Quinn sent a letter requesting an extension in the decision to close the William A. Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park, a Chicago suburb. The letter was sent to members of the legislative Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, requesting a minimum 30-day extension to complete his own assessment of the facility.




Howe, which houses developmentally disabled adults, has had its share of problems in the past three years. It was decertified almost two years ago by the federal government for failing to meet minimum standards of care, forcing the state to pick up the check for the center’s operating costs.

Prior to today’s vote, committee members expressed dismay concerning the governor’s actions.

“This is a difficult decision for all the members of this commission. I just think it’s irresponsible of the governor at this late stage to come in with a letter and ask us to delay this decision,” said Sen. Bill Brady, a Bloomington Republican. “My opinion is, the worst thing we can do is be indecisive. We should make a decision for the commission and move forward for all those affected, and I just can’t fathom why we would grant an extension at this late date, even for the governor.”

In an effort to explain the governor’s actions, Michelle Saddler, Quinn's director of policy, and Sean Vinck, chief legislative counsel, spoke on his behalf. “The principle that’s guided us is a fundamental one. First, do no harm,” said Vinck. “We’re very concerned about taking any other action because we fear unintended consequences, so we take it with great seriousness. … We decided that the best course to pursue was to engage an outside consultant who can objectively and meaningfully evaluate the circumstances and give a recommendation based on wisdom, good philosophy and good practice, and that’s the position we’d like to take.”

With 12 members present, the vote was deadlocked 6 to 6, but with a quorum of seven votes needed to deny the governor’s request, the motion died and Howe is now recommended for closure. However, the State Facilities Closure Act makes a closure by the commission only advisory to the governor.

Similarly, the committee members also voted to close Tinley Mental Health Center. Both facilities occupy the same parcel of land. Members voted 9 to 3 in favor of closure.

Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat, voted yes on both measures. “I think (Quinn has) been trying to find someone for a while to take a different look at Howe, … but the timing of (the request) was a little stunning,” she said. Nekritz said closing either facility won’t happen overnight. “In order to adequately meet the needs of the residents, it’s going to take months to do that because they’re going to have find appropriate placements, placements that the families are comfortable with. And that’s going to take awhile for the department to work through, but they’ve been planning for this, so I think that they should feel they can do this in fairly short order, in a matter of months.”

Rep. Richard Myers, a Colchester Republican, also voted to close Howe. He said that visiting with the Illinois Department of Human Services, which supported the closing, gave him reason to consider his position. “Looking at the facts about the operations there, and the question surrounding the deaths and the fact that we haven’t been able to be certified by the federal government to receive Medicaid reimbursement,” he said. “All of those facts combined suggested to me that it is time to close that facility.” But if the governor accepts the commission’s recommendation, Myers expects there to be a public outcry. “In the past few days, our office has received numerous calls from families who wanted it to stay open because they felt their care there was such that they were able to continue to stay together,” he said. “And I can understand that. Others, of course, feel there’s a real lack of care.”

Advocates who wanted the center closed cite at least 30 deaths that have occurred on the grounds in the past 2 ½ years, one as recent as last month.
See background here.

Tom Green, spokesman for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said he is pleased with the decision made today by the commission.

Sheila Romano, executive director of the Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities, said in a statement: “Howe’s closure is a very difficult, emotional issue for all parties who are advocating for what they believe is best. We urge the people of Illinois or elected officials and policy-makers to reflect on whether there is a place for a failed institution that has lost all federal funding due to repeated allegations of substandard care and neglect.”

Advocates who want the center to stay open tell a much different story.
Belinda Baker, director of the Mechanical and Transportation Department at Howe Developmental Center, said she thinks members made a terrible mistake. “First they need to review all of the facts and look at the data that we’ve provided that shows we give quality care to all of the patients and residents of Howe,” she said. As for any alleged incidents of mistreatment and the number of deaths reported in the past three years, Baker said, those can happen anywhere.

“You’re going to have deaths at any facility based on the age and the health issues that some of our residents have,” she said. “The majority of those are attributed to natural causes. They were not because of any abuse or neglect.”

Betty Turturillo, president of the Howe Family and Friends Association, said the group is “is outraged that the members of COGFA think they know better than us what is best for our loved ones.” Turturillo added that the closing of a facility like Howe doesn’t just affect the patients. “The real ‘choices’ that have been offered to Howe families if our center closes are no choice at all. We would have to choose between moving to another state center much farther away or settle for fewer services in the community, often in more isolated settings, that could endanger our loved ones.”

The commission’s recommendations are filed May 9, 2009, at which time Quinn will either accept the vote or proceed with an independent inquiry into Howe before issuing a decision.

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Mental health providers fear cuts

By Bethany Jaeger
While human service providers have long fought for more state funding, mental health and substance abuse providers who offer services at the community level say they need as much as $93 million to prevent thousands of people from losing access to critical services next year.



Frank Anselmo, chief executive officer of the Springfield-based Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois, said Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget proposes $26 million less than last year for mental health services and $12 million less for substance abuse services. The cuts have a cumulative effect, Anselmo added, because the state reimbursement rate for Medicaid providers doesn’t cover half of the cost of providing the services to needy clients.

The association surveyed providers throughout the state to ask what would happen if the legislature approved the cuts this spring. Providers reported that more than 16,000 Illinois residents could lose access to treatment in their communities by July 2010. And the nearly 30,000 people who do have access to treatment could receive reduced services.

Diane Knaebe, president of Heritage Behavioral Health Center in Decatur, said at a Statehouse news conference this morning that the agency could serve 400 fewer clients in Macon County next fiscal year and decrease services by at least 10 percent for existing clients if more funding didn’t come through.

Lora Thomas, executive director of the Illinois chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said saving money by not funding mental health services often causes untreated conditions to eventually demand costlier care in emergency rooms, prisons and nursing homes.

The Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois’ goal is to access existing state funds, increased federal reimbursement funding and new state revenues to help pay for mental health services, substance abuse services, backlogged Medicaid bills and health care for Illinois veterans. According to the association, about $35 million sat dormant in dedicated state funds during the last few years of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration and continues to be unused. The Illinois Department of Human Services had not responded to questions by the time of this post.

At least 10 senators of both political parties have signed on to a resolution, SJR 31, urging Quinn’s administration to tap into the unused state funds, as well as increased federal Medicaid reimbursements available through the federal stimulus package, to support mental health and substance abuse services. But the resolution is not binding.

If new revenue came into Illinois through a state income tax increase, community providers want part of it dedicated to human services. Anselmo said the group also supports the concept of increasing the sales tax on alcohol by 1 cent or 2 cents per alcoholic drink.

Watch for more on funding of mental health and other human services soon.

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Howe Developmental Center update

By Hilary Russell
Now that a new governor is in office, some advocates for the developmentally disabled hope that the closure of the William A. Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park, a Chicago suburb, will happen as soon as possible.

Representatives from several advocacy and disability groups delivered a petition today to Gov. Pat Quinn containing 1,500 signatures and a report detailing recent incidents of abuse and death at Howe. Advocates urged his support and immediate action to close the facility. See background here.



Five more people have died at Howe since the Illinois Department of Human Services announced a decision to close the facility in September 2008. That brings the total to 29 people who have died in the past 3 1/2 years.

“This is a facility that’s broken. It’s not going to be fixed,” Zena Naiditch, chief executive officer of Equip for Equality, said at a Statehouse news conference today. “We’re wasting almost $80 million a year to keep this place operating, and every month, or two or three that we keep Howe open, we’re gonna have another couple of deaths. So it’s critical that this happen in a timely manner.”

Almost two years after the federal government decertified the facility because it failed to meet minimum standards, Howe has remained open. Decertification results in a loss of federal funding, but the state has picked up the rest of the tab.

One advocate urged his peers to demand humane living conditions for people living in institutions, citing the right to be treated with respect and compassion despite “maintaining some unique challenges.”

Lester Pritchard, chief executive officer of the grassroots organization Campaign for Real Choice, asked people to imagine being forced to live in an institution where they don’t feel safe and where they completely depend other people, regardless of whether they feel comfortable with them.

“We call on the governor to stop this torment at Howe,” said Pritchard, who relied on his wife to “revoice” for him when he spoke. “To put politics aside and return to his activists roots. Close this facility and allow these people to move to a safer living environment.”

But not everyone, including those directly involved in those types of facilities, believe closing the homes is the right thing to do.

Some families and even residents have expressed their opposition to such a move, citing fears about how and where the residents would live. Employees, too, have expressed opposition, saying hundreds will lose their jobs if the state closes the facility this summer.

The Department of Human Services operates eight other developmental centers. Each of these facilities is responsible for caring for people with developmental disabilities and major behavioral and or medical needs.

Howe has the most reported deaths of any state operated facility in Illinois.

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Mental health facilities closure on hold

By Hilary Russell

The decision whether to permanently close Howe Developmental Center and Tinley Park Mental Health Center in the Chicago suburbs has been postponed. Illinois Issues wrote about it in June 2008. The federal government decertified the facilities in 2007 when reports revealed that clients were unnecessarily drugged or restrained without medical justification.

Legislators on the bipartisan Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability decided that in the wake of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s impeachment by the Illinois House, it was better to wait until a full Senate trial determined whether Blagojevich would be kicked out of office.



“In light of these developments,” said Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, reading from a draft report outlining the commission’s opinion on the closures, “given these extraordinary circumstances, the responsible action is to quarantine this transaction.”

The commission said it would make a decision within 60 days after the Senate impeachment trial is completed. The trial is scheduled to start January 26.

Nine panel members affirmed the decision, while one dissented. Rep. Elaine Nekritz, a Northbrook Democrat, said the state has waited long enough and has spent millions of dollars that could have been spread out to other facilities.

According to the draft, five people have died since October and at least one in December, alone, accounting for more than 25 deaths in the past few years.

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Warning: Rocky road still ahead

State parks and historic sites would stay open. Substance abuse prevention and treatment services would avoid losing $55 million in state funding and the same amount in federal funding. State funding for human services would return to the levels approved by the legislature in May. The same would apply to the constitutional officers, which could hire back employees already laid off. Mass transit districts would receive more than $36 million in reimbursements for having to provide free rides to seniors and people with disabilities. But there’s a big “if.”

That will happen if Gov. Rod Blagojevich signs a plan approved by both chambers. The House approved the budget restorations earlier this month, and the Senate followed suit on Tuesday. But there’s no telling how long this could take. The Senate could send the approved measures to the governor’s desk right away, or it could wait for whatever reason. And once the governor does get the measures, he still has 60 days to sign them into law, veto them completely or send them back to the legislature with changes. Given the timeline or lack thereof, it’s questionable whether state parks and historic sites will close in October and November as scheduled.

All agree that the ball is in the governor’s court.

Rep. Mark Beaubien, a Barrington Hills Republican and budget negotiator for his caucus, expressed a concern about Blagojevich's next move. “Now he has the ability to take the veto pen and play games and eliminate programs to try to make different people look bad.”

Brian Williamsen, a Blagojevich spokesman, said the governor’s office has to review all of the details and added that it’s too early to speculate on a timeline. Williamsen could not say whether the governor would delay closing parks and historic sites if the House and Senate plan had potential to become law.

The House and Senate agreed to sweep unused money from the special state funds to collect about $221 million, which is included in SB 790. The package also would create a new fund, dubbed the “Budget Relief Fund,” so that the money could not be used for anything other than restoring the budget cuts spelled out in the spending bill, SB 1103.

The 15 votes against the fund sweeps were among Senate Republicans, who said there is no guarantee that the governor will sign the measure and, if he does, that he’ll release the money as intended.

The deal to accept the House’s version of the plan came only after much of the day was spent behind closed doors negotiating an even larger plan that would have increased funding for various programs, but the wish list ballooned out of control and eventually collapsed at the last minute. Literally at the same time, the Illinois Department of Revenue issued new information that revenue projections are coming in lower than anticipated. Income and sales tax revenues, as well as other tax revenues, are coming in below the levels on which this year’s budget was predicated. The difference: $200 million.

That slightly deflates the cushion that the governor has when distributing money throughout the fiscal year. But Rep. Gary Hannig, a Litchfield Democrat and budget negotiator for his caucus, said the $221 million in budget restorations that advanced to the governor’s desk Tuesday pay for themselves by transferring the same amount from special funds.

Sen. Donne Trotter, the Senate Democrats' budget negotiator, looked to the regularly scheduled fall session in November. “If there’s still an appetite to do more, then we can do more at that time.”

But the question of what the governor would do loomed like a black cloud. “There [are] no assurances — nothing that I can give — other than we know that there is a need, a necessity to get this done,” Trotter said. “And I think that we saw that, at least, in a rare occasion, the entire Senate that is present today voted for it. So we know at least what the legislators would like to see done. … It’s up to him of what he’s going to do otherwise.”

Which message are you sending?
Building on yesterday’s ethics reforms, the state Senate advanced a more sweeping measure that the governor tried but failed to advance through his executive powers. All GOP senators voted in support of the measure, five Democrats voted present and one Democrat voted against it.

Sen. Don Harmon, voted “present." The Oak Park Democrat sponsored yesterday’s successful pay-to-play ban, but he opposed the measure containing the governor’s proposals today because it sends the wrong message. He warned that approving a bill that almost everyone agrees is fatally flawed would undermine the behind-the-scenes negotiations already happening between both chambers and the governor’s office. He said it also could give the impression that the Senate is more interested in claiming that it advanced comprehensive ethics reforms than it is in ironing out the complicated and significant details with the House.

“Let’s negotiate this bill before we start throwing bombs across the building,” Harmon said before the Senate voted to approve the measure.

Fifty senators disagreed with Harmon and said approving the new reforms contained in SB 780 sends a different message: The Senate is ready to enact comprehensive reforms that could help regain the public’s trust during these troubling times. (That message is more likely to sound better on campaign literature landing in voters’ mailboxes from now until the November 4 elections.)

The legislation would enact more limits to political campaign contributions and shine more sunlight on who makes money off of whom. It would prohibit businesses with significant state contracts from donating to legislators and statewide political parties, prevent legislators from working in numerous government jobs as a second source of income, require more disclosure of legislators’ lobbying activities and reform the way the legislature enacts its own pay raises.

Through a news release, the governor applauded the Senate’s action. “This vote sends a message to the people that the tired tradition of double dipping, the fraudulent way pay raises are doled out and the deceitful way legislators who moonlight as attorneys can hide their clout-heavy client list should be a thing of the past.” His news release urged the House to continue the momentum and approve the more sweeping ethics reforms.

The Campaign for Political Reform, a Chicago-based good government group, testified against the legislation last night, saying it was fatally flawed and constituted more “political rhetoric” during the election season. But Cindi Canary, director of the think tank, said she has been working with other legislators and the governor’s office for the past few weeks on the governor’s ethics language.

The Senate president addressed the whole chamber but, at more than one point, seemed to speak directly to Harmon and Sen. Ira Silverstein, a Chicago Democrat who also voted “present.” (In the Illinois legislature, a “present” vote is intended to demonstrate opposition a flawed bill but support of the concept.) Both Harmon and Silverstein also happen to be among the names floating around as contestants to be the next Senate president when Jones’ term ends in January.

Jones said senators who oppose SB 780 want to either protect someone else or preserve their fundraising abilities so they can run for higher office. Silverstein later said that Jones’ comments are part of a political game and won’t hurt other negotiations. “But enough is enough,” he said. “You have to stand up for what you believe in.”

The only senator voting against the legislation was Sen. Mike Jacobs, an East Moline Democrat who often speaks out against Blagojevich. He repeated earlier sentiments that “the cancer of Illinois is the governor.” Jacobs made the point that the governor’s ethics legislation approved by the Senate today would not target the actions of convicted felon and political insider Tony Rezko, found guilty of 16 counts of federal corruption. It also wouldn’t have stopped another political insider and hefty campaign contributor, Ali Ata, from testifying that he donated to the governor’s campaign in exchange for a high-powered state job.

Sen. James DeLeo, the Chicago Democrat sponsoring the governor's ethics bill, defended the measure and said it wouldn’t stop drug dealing or bank robbing, but it would improve the transparency of state government.

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Pay-to-play ban becomes law

Monday did become Ethics Day. After three years of back-and-forth, the Illinois House and Senate finally agreed and enacted landmark ethics reforms that will become effective January 1. The governor and some legislators already are trying to expand the so-called pay-to-play ban, but that could take just as long as the first effort. In the meantime, Monday’s action is likely to generate a lot of campaign mail as incumbents and candidates enter the home stretch before the November 4 elections.

Meanwhile, as I write this, budget negotiators from both chambers and both political parties are meeting behind closed doors to hash out a plan that would prevent state parks and historic sites from closing this fall, as well as prevent hundreds of state employees from losing their jobs. Whether they will strike a compromise, however, won’t be known until Tuesday, when both chambers will reconvene in another off-season legislative session.

All day Monday, which included multiple special sessions called by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, served as a perfect example of how everything will change in January. In addition to new ethics laws that will affect the governor’s fundraising abilities, January marks the end of Senate President Emil Jones’ reign. Throughout the day, there was an acute awareness that Jones is on his way out of office with numerous individuals interested in taking his place. More on that later.

One set of ethics reform down, more to go
The Illinois Senate agreed with the House to override Blagojevich’s changes to HB 824, meaning new campaign contribution rules will take effect in the new year. Businesses holding state contracts worth more than $50,000 will not be able to donate to the political campaigns of the officeholder who signs the contract.

The Senate president said the new law contained in HB 824 doesn’t go far enough. “It turns hard money into soft money,” Jones said, later adding, “They’ll still be able to give the soft money through the back door.” He meant that instead of donating directly to the officeholder, state contactors will still be able to give money to statewide political parties that turn around and filter the money to the officeholder who signs the contract, anyway.

Jones supports the governor’s proposals, which would expand the so-called pay-to-play ban. The governor’s amendatory veto language was inserted into a new bill. It would:

• Ban businesses that hold significant state contracts from donating to legislators and statewide political parties, as well as statewide officeholders;
• Prohibit legislators from working second jobs in any unit of government, with some exceptions;
• Clarify the process by which legislators vote to accept their pay raises.

The Senate sponsor, Chicago Democratic Sen. James DeLeo, said SB 780 would level the playing field and help legislators avoid the perception that money buys influence.

Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and a main force behind HB 824, said it felt odd, but she had to oppose the new measure during a Senate committee Monday evening. She said the more expansive ethics legislation is “not ready for prime time, yet.”

She said she supports the concept but believes the governor’s proposal isn’t the right vehicle for enacting contribution limits on legislators. Banning state contractors from donating to elected officials who have no control over state contracts could invite a legal challenge based on the First Amendment that protects free speech, she said. She also questioned the fallout of prohibiting active state legislators from also working in some public sector jobs but not others. And she said the one aspect that would be ready to go if it were proposed as a stand-alone measure is the portion that would clarify the system of approving legislative pay raises.

Sen. James Clayborne, a Belleville Democrat, agreed with Canary and said the governor’s proposals need some more work, but he voted to advance the measure to the full chamber in hopes of working through more changes before a final vote.

Restoring budget cuts
Meanwhile, budgeteers are working behind closed doors in an effort to compromise to restore some of the governor’s $1.4 billion in budget cuts, which are resulting in plans to close 11 state parks and 13 historic sites, lay off hundreds of public employees and drastically reduce state funding for such human services as substance abuse treatment and prevention.

Earlier this month, the House approved two measures that would sweep about $221 million from special funds to plug some but not all of the budget holes. (See the spending portion in SB 1103.)

Sen. Donne Trotter, a Chicago Democrat and budget negotiator, said the Senate Democrats found $42 million of that $221 million that they would like to spend in a different way than approved by the House. That includes $37 million the House included to reimburse mass transit districts for the free rides granted to seniors and people with disabilities enacted earlier this year. The Senate Democrats would take that out and shift the funding, for instance, to increase the amount of money for college grants through the Monetary Award Program. The House also would restore funding for constitutional officers at 100 percent of the original funding level, while the Senate Democrats would restore them at 75 percent.

Republicans are involved in the budget negotiations. According to Patty Schuh, spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Frank Watson, the GOP Caucus prioritizes restoring funding for state parks, historic sites and human services. But members argue that it doesn’t make sense to restore funding to the parks and historic sites and then sweep money from the special fund dedicated to the Department of Natural Resources.

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Friday follow-up

A few loose ends that we recently wrote about have been tied up today, while few more are about to reopen next week. The Illinois House returns to Springfield Wednesday and Thursday to debate funding for a statewide construction plan and to reverse some of the governor's recent actions.

AFSCME: It’s fair
First, a lot of rallies, meetings and political undertones potentially came to rest Friday as about 37,000 state employees have a new, agreed-upon contract with their top employer, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31 vocally opposed increases in their health care costs that they say the administration sought. Months of negotiations led the union to request a mediator to bring the two sides closer together.

The result is a four-year contract that gives members a 15.25 percent wage increase during the life of the contract, and retired employees will retain the pension and health benefits they received under the former contract. However, employees are going to pay more for their health insurance premiums, co-payments and deductibles. Cohen said monthly premiums will increase by $12 twice during the next four years. “The state was asking for huge amounts, and we ended up are what we feel are modest amounts,” Cohen said, later adding: “Our members feel it was fair. When they looked at that contract, it wasn’t everything they wanted, but it was fair.”

He said they didn’t get relief from mandatory overtime, which they expect to intensify as more workers are laid off and the remaining employees do “more with less,” an all too familiar phrase.

The governor’s office also said in a statement that the contract was “fair" for both taxpayers and state workers. "Both sides spent months in negotiations, and this contract is the result of that tireless work.”

AFSCME: It’s unfair
Council 31, however, still disagrees with the administration about a separate issue: closing a once troubled facility for people with developmental disabilities. William A. Howe Developmental Center and the Tinley Park Mental Health Center in Chicago's south suburbs were decertified by the federal government for reports of neglect and other deficiencies. The lack of federal certification means the state no longer receives federal money to operate the facilities. But the Illinois Department of Human Services continued to operate and fund the centers without a federal match. We wrote about the centers, as well as some new plans for caring for people with disabilities, in the June Illinois Issues magazine.

AFSCME opposes shuttering the center because it would leave about 800 employees without their state jobs and benefits. About 600 are AFSCME members, said John Cameron, Council 31 spokesman. Some families also opposed the closing because they fear for the continuity of care for their loved ones with few alternatives. The administration announced that it planned to move residents to other state institutions or to community-based services. Yet, Cameron said, this affects people with high needs of services, and the union questions whether the state has enough capacity to support community-based services that already are under-funded and have long waiting lists.

The Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities said about 15,000 individuals are on a waiting list for such services. However, the council said shutting one door opens another. Instead of placing people with disabilities in more institutions, advocates look to community-based services as a way to improve what they describe as an outdated system. Read more in the organization’s report, “Blueprint for system redesign in Illinois.”

Home for the House days
State Rep. Jim Watson, a Jacksonville Republican and staff sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, flew home from Camp Pendleton, Calif., today after serving more than six months in Iraq. Watch Illinois Issues magazine print edition to read more about the work he did to help one province establish its first form of representative government, which the U.S. military just handed over to the Anbar Provincial Council on Labor Day.

Watson arrives home just in time for the Illinois House to reconvene in a special session to discuss funding a capital construction program by leasing the Illinois Lottery to private investors.

But even if the House approves a lottery deal — with some modifications to the governor’s original proposal — it still has to go to the Senate, which isn’t scheduled to come back to Springfield before November. And even if the Senate approved a measure to let the governor lease the lottery, then it still would take months to figure out the amount of money it would generate and the amount of money that the state would have to borrow. Only then would the House draft a spending plan for that money, according to Rep. Gary Hannig, a Litchfield Democrat and deputy majority leader.

But voting on a lottery plan is a first step in that process. Expect the House to include such “safeguards" as requiring the state treasurer and comptroller to sign off on the lottery deal to ensure that it’s a good deal for taxpayers. Hannig also said an ethics portion would “ensure that there’s no temptation to engage in any kind of pay-to-play antics,” and they could limit the amount consultants and lawyers could make from the deal. “Hopefully we can pass this bill next week and send it to the Senate,” Hannig said. “And it isn’t that much different from what they have already passed.”

We’ll see about that.

The House also is expected consider some of the governor’s amendatory vetoes, including the unanimously approved ethics legislation that Blagojevich expanded. And House members could try to approve restoring some of the money the governor cut that resulted in hundreds of layoffs, closed state parks and closed state historic sites. But it would restore some, not all, of the cuts, Hannig said.

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