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| Wednesday Was a Bad Day for Human Service Providers |
It's been a bad couple of days for human service providers in Illinois. They held out hope that state lawmakers would pass a tax hike to spare massive cuts, only to be disappointed late Tuesday night when that didn't happen. Then Wednesday, Governor Pat Quinn vetoed the part of the budget that includes human services, so funding went from a possible 50 percent to nothing at all.
Providers are already handing out layoff notices and telling clients that their services will be scaled back or cut.
The Rally for the Common Good, a coalition of 50 human service organizations and advocates from across Illinois, lists the potential cuts:
15,600 seniors will lose community care programs that enable them to remain in their homes and out of nursing homes, and another 35,000 seniors will see those services reduced 88,585 children will lose day care services, threatening their parents' ability to work
12,900 women will lose life-saving breast cancer screenings, and 45,000 men will lose prostate cancer screening and prevention services 12,000 teens and adults will lose treatment for drug and alcohol addiction 60,000 pre-school children will lose their early childhood education 11,000 cases of elder abuse will go uninvestigated Half of the state's child abuse investigators will be eliminated, raising caseloads to 20 to 1 Nearly 14,000 rape and child sex abuse victims will be denied crisis services.
Lawmakers are scheduled to return to the Capitol on July 14th for possible override votes, but Quinn may pull them in earlier for special session and again demand that they pass an income tax hike.
(Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 07 01 09 by Newsroom |
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