EXCERPT FROM: The State Journal-Register
By Dean Olsen
The old, the young and the disabled, as well as men and women in uniform, would be among those to suffer under Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed state budget for fiscal 2011.
The Illinois State Police is projecting that 30 percent of its troopers would lose their jobs and five regional offices, including the one in Litchfield, would close; retired state workers would pay more for health care; state-funded child care, drug treatment and mental health services would take a hit; and public health programs would be eliminated.
No to mention the decrease in state funding to schools that Quinn says will be necessary if his proposal to raise the state income tax rate from 3 percent to 4 percent isn’t approved.
Springfield-based Sparc, which serves more than 500 people with developmental disabilities, would receive about $300,000 less from the state as a result of the governor’s budget plan, Sparc executive director Carlissa Puckett said.
That cut would follow several years of state funding that has failed to keep up with inflation. Sparc’s 190 employees have gone several years without raises, she said.
“It’s like a tire that they have been gradually letting the air out of, and we’re just about flat,” Puckett said.
She said she isn’t sure how Sparc will deal with the funding cut. About $7.5 million of the agency’s $9 million annual budget comes from the state.
Drastic cuts in state funding for Sparc and other providers of human services were averted by massive state borrowing last year.
But the recession’s lingering effect on state receipts has led to the longest backlog in state funding Sparc has ever experienced. The state now owes Sparc $2.58 million for services dating back to last fall.
“We have inadequate payments and significantly late payments,” Puckett said.
Here’s an agency-by-agency breakdown of some of the most significant impacts from the governor's budget proposal.
Human Services
The budget would cut at least $226 million in fiscal 2011 through reductions in child care, drug treatment and mental health services.
As many as 178,500 people would be removed from programs across the state as a result, Illinois Department of Human Services spokesman Tom Green said.
“We need additional revenue to avoid the proposed cuts,” he said.
Quinn’s plan would cut $52 million from community mental health services, and programs that serve people with developmental disabilities would be reduced by $95 million.
Another $52 million would be cut from “human capital development” services such as subsidized child care for low-income families, Green said. More than 100,000 children statewide receive state-subsidized child care. About 5,900 child-care slots would be eliminated, he said.
Other cuts would include $7 million from grants for alcohol- and drug-treatment programs and $20 million less for community health and prevention.
The agency’s overall budget — supported by both state and federal funds — would increase about 2 percent, to $6.43 billion, Green said, but the increase mainly reflects higher costs for labor and entitlement programs.
State Board of Education
Quinn’s proposed budget sets overall spending on elementary and secondary education, counting both state and federal funds, at $9.86 billion. The Illinois State Board of Education requested $11.26 billion for next year and got just under $11 billion this year.
The “foundation level” of state funding per student this year is $6,119, but Quinn’s budget for next year would reduce that to $5,669.
Special education is expected to lose more than $2 million, according to Quinn's budget. The cuts would hit services provided to blind and dyslexic students and to children with mental health problems, among others. Bilingual education is expected to lose nearly 30 percent of its funding.
ISBE spokesman Matt Vanover said the state board itself has reduced its staff by 40 percent in the last decade, from 775 in 2000 to about 500 today. Meanwhile, the board has seen a more than 30 percent increase in the federal funds it must administer, he said.