 But Thursday morning a legislative commission voted against Quinn's
move to close the state psychiatric center.The Legislature's
Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, or COGFA,
also voted on Thursday against closing the Logan Correctional Center
in Lincoln and the Jacksonville Developmental Center.
"There's a right way to close these places and there's a wrong
way to do it, and I thought this was the wrong way," said state Rep.
Kevin McCarthy, D-Orland Park.
Quinn announced the closures of those and four other state
facilities and the laying off of nearly 2,000 employees earlier in
the year because the General Assembly didn't give him enough money
in its $33.2 billion budget.
COGFA voted last month against closing the Singer Mental Health
Center in Rockford, Mabley Developmental Center in Dixon, the
Illinois Youth Center in Murphysboro and the Chester Mental Health
Center.
COGFA's votes, however, are advisory only, and Quinn could still
move forward with the closings.
"If (Tinley Park Mental Health Center) closes, there has to be
some place, some facility, some type of program for the folks those
facilities serve," said Edward Zabrocki, Tinley Park mayor. "You
can't close a facility and have no place for these people to be
handled. That borders on criminal. They've got to have a place to
go."
The Tinley Park facility treated about 1,900 patients last year.
A plan has formed that would avert the closures in the short term
by using some of the $376 million Quinn vetoed from the budget,
along with other unappropriated funds, said Kelly Kraft, Quinn's
budget spokeswoman.
Kraft pegged the cost of keeping the facilities open and the
workers employed through the end of the fiscal year in June at about
$223 million. She could not say how much of the money would come
from Quinn's budgetary vetoes and how much would come from other
funds.
Some House lawmakers will return to Springfield next Wednesday
and could debate the proposal in a House Revenue Committee. The full
General Assembly will come back to the Capitol Nov. 29, when Kraft
said the governor hopes his plan will be approved.
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About 160 employees at the Singer Mental Health Center are next
in line to get pink slips if Quinn can't round up the legislative
votes needed for his plan.
"We can't pay the staff if we don't have the money," said Michael
Gelder, Quinn's senior health care policy adviser.
Members of COGFA who voted against closing the facilities said
they didn't vote against what Quinn suggested, just the way he did
it.
"The House and the Senate and both parties are willing to sit
down with the administration in developing a long-range plan that
will be affordable, that will serve the needs of the residents, ...
but we need to do that in an orderly way as opposed to something
that becomes confrontational," said state Sen. Dave Syverson,
D-Rockford, whose district includes Singer Mental Health Center.
Gelder outlined a new plan to save the state money by closing up
to six state facilities -- four facilities for the developmentally
disabled and two psychiatric hospitals -- by June 2014.
Approximately 600 of the 2,000 residents of state developmentally
disabled facilities would be moved into smaller, community-based
settings, according to Gelder.
Whether the facilities closed under Quinn's new plan would be the
same ones originally targeted has yet to be decided, Kraft said.
If lawmakers approve keeping the facilities open through June,
"we will move ahead with a planned, thoughtful approach," Gelder
said, "stopping admissions, initiating the assessments and
completing care plans and transition plans that will enable us to
meet the needs of the people."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]
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