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 Officials tinkered with the state budget to
come up with extra money that Gov. Pat Quinn can use to run seven
state facilities he had planned to begin closing within days. They
also shuffled money around to come up with more cash for substance-abuse services, community mental health programs and even funerals
for indigent people.
There are tradeoffs, however.
Some of the money for the facilities is
available because Quinn used his veto powers earlier this year to
cut education spending, particularly $89 million that helped pay for
school buses. Officials also decided there was surplus money in a
special fund that helps support government pension systems; instead
of giving that extra $95 million to the struggling pensions, they're
diverting it for other uses.
Other cuts raise the question of why some money
was ever put in the budget at all.
For instance, Illinois abolished the death penalty in January,
but the budget that was signed in June still included money to pay
the legal costs of capital cases. Now officials have decided they
can reallocate $6.1 million by cutting that.
The bottom line is that Quinn and the Legislature found a way to
avert the shutdown of seven state facilities: a prison in Lincoln; a
juvenile detention center in Murphysboro; mental institutions in
Tinley Park, Rockford and Chester; and developmental centers in
Jacksonville and Dixon.
They're earmarking $202 million to avert the closures and beef up
other areas that Quinn said did not have enough money to operate for
a full year.
Rep. Frank Mautino, a Democratic specialist on budget issues,
said Quinn was right about not having enough money. Mental
institutions and developmental centers would have been forced to
stop paying employees around February under the original budget, he
said.
By announcing plans to close the facilities, instead of waiting
and asking for more money in the spring, Quinn pointed a very bright
spotlight at the situation.
"Politically, it got a lot of people paying attention to it and
created a lot of stress in communities throughout Illinois," said
Mautino, of Spring Valley.
Overall, the plan worked out by Quinn and the Legislature does
not increase state spending. Instead, it cuts in some places and
grabs unused money in others, then shifts that spending to services
deemed more critical.
That saves the jobs of about 1,900 state employees Quinn was
going to lay off, despite his agreement last year not to cut jobs or
close facilities, in exchange for union concessions.
A key union -- the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees -- applauded the cancellation of the layoffs but
noted another problem remains unresolved. The budget deal doesn't
provide money for raises required under the employees' union
contract.
Henry Bayer, executive director of AFSCME Council 31, said it's
wrong of the state not to honor agreements after employees made
concessions to trim government spending. "At the end of the day, we
believe they have a legal and moral obligation to pay the raises,"
Bayer said.
The new spending plan is also good news for many residents of
state mental institutions and developmental-disability centers.
If those facilities had closed suddenly, some residents would
have been squeezed into remaining institutions. Even more would have
been released into the community with limited help to find homes,
arrange medical care, find work and all the other tasks of building
a life.
Public hearings on the potential closings produced a litany of
gloomy predictions about what would happen if residents were forced
out without proper community services.
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The reprieve is only temporary, however. The Quinn administration
and many lawmakers want to proceed with a slower, better-planned
shift away from big institutions over the next few years. The same
institutions are likely to be on the chopping block again in the
near future.
"Over the next three years we're going to be moving more and more
to community care. This is something that I think is in the best
interest of the men and women who are in the facilities now," Quinn
said Thursday.
Mautino noted that the facilities being saved from closure are
primarily downstate and that much of the money to save them comes
from programs that primarily benefit downstate communities. When he
signed the budget over the summer, Quinn cut $11 million to pay
regional superintendents around the state and the $89 million to
help schools pay for busing students.
Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville, complained that state government
is basically breaking its word to schools.
"I'm just holding out some hope that we'll fulfill the promise we
made to school districts when we mandate that they do certain things
and transport students," he said when the House debated the proposal
Tuesday. "That doesn't seem to be a priority of the administration
or the General Assembly at this point."
The plan also tinkers with the budget to bring in more federal
money, which then goes to services that were shortchanged the first
time around.
This is done by putting $140 million into a special hospital fund
that qualifies for federal Medicaid matching. Then the state's money
is used for its original purpose and the new money from Washington
goes to substance-abuse programs, community mental health, funerals
for the poor and more -- services that were hit particularly hard in
the original budget.
"I'm looking forward to having those services restored," Rep.
Kenneth Dunkin, D-Chicago, said in debate. "The citizens here in
this state, many of them who cannot afford to have lobbyists down
here, are looking upon us."
[Associated Press By
CHRISTOPHER WILLS]
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
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