Budget fallout already hitting

SPRINGFIELD – This July 4th weekend is much more than patriotic celebration for some Illinoisans who find themselves in limbo thanks to another state government budget crisis.

The state has started a new budget year but has no budget in place. Top leaders are bickering over a solution but not returning until July 14 for a special session. Social service providers and state workers don’t know what cuts are in store but are asked to keep working.

But with deep spending cuts possible, the fallout has already started.

Some providers, fearing the state won’t live up to its obligations this budget year, have started laying off workers and closing programs. Others plan to follow suit soon if state leaders don’t do more.

“We can’t budget based on a promise,” said Pam Sutherland of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, which laid off 19 workers last week. “We have to budget for the year based on what we’ve been told we’re going to get. We had to make hard cuts.”

Advocates said it was an unfair situation and couldn’t help but point fingers at lawmakers and the governor for forcing the tough choices that could be prevented.

“It’s just a disaster. It bothers me personally that they would even make that decision,” said Jim Hamilton of Milestones in Rockford, which provides services to those with physical disabilities.

State officials said they knew the predicament was harmful but coudln’t say when they would have a resolution.

Lawmakers sent Gov. Pat Quinn a budget with huge shortfalls in spending, mostly to service providers. He vetoed a key piece of it Wednesday, saying lawmakers need to come back and approve a better plan.

Legislators will return on the 14th for more work but say the governor should have approved what they sent him to get by for a while.

“I would hope he would not move toward creation of a crisis, that he would not move toward a government shutdown,” said House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Quinn assured state workers that they would get paychecks and benefits while the dispute is worked out, but his message was murkier for providers. He said they risked not being paid for providing services until there’s a budget.

Comptroller Dan Hynes criticized Quinn for sending an irresponsible message instead of assuring providers they will get paid.

“He is adding to the hysteria by creating doubt and potentially causing disruption to these essential services,” Hynes said.

Providers and workers just want some certainty.

Sara Moscato Howe, chief executive officer of the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association, said treatment centers already were denying new patients and starting to terminate some services.

“These are providers that were already stretched to the brink,” Moscato Howe said. “If they close, they are not going to reopen tomorrow.”

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois laid off 32 workers offering children’s services in its Chicago, Dixon and Peoria offices because no new budget was put in place July 1.

Larry Smith of Addus Healthcare in Springfield said cutback decisions could be delayed for a while, but not indefinitely.

“We have to look at our workforce and say, ‘do we have enough work for everybody?’ The answer is going to be ‘no,’ “ Smith said.

Keith Kuhn of Gateway Foundation in Springfield said his drug treatment center likely would have made cutback choices before lawmakers return to work.

“The 14th is a little late,” Kuhn said. “By that time, we’ll probably have made those decisions.”

The Peoria Association of Retarded Citizens (PARC) also had some recent layoffs after learning in June that state funding would be cut.

“How deep it’ll go beyond that, we don’t know until we find out what exactly the cuts will be,” PARC’s Roy Rickets said.

State workers also find themselves in limbo, although the immediate future is a little brighter with the governor’s assurances.

But big cuts are on the horizon. Quinn said he would need to cut more than 2,500 state positions and have workers take 12 unpaid furlough days even if he was to get the budget he wanted. That layoff number could top 10,000 if money shortages continue, Quinn warned.

Cameron Watson, a correctional officer at the state prison in Jacksonville, said workers there already were working lots of overtime because of recent retirements. Losing officers or taking forced furlough days would make conditions worse.

“It’s at the point that I’m not sure where they’ll cut,” said Watson, local union steward for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 31.

Watson said workers there weren’t panicking yet but would hit the streets in a local parade this weekend, stressing the need for an income tax increase to avoid deep, painful cuts.

“It seems to me to be a pretty dire situation,” Watson said. “I’m hoping the legislators figure it out soon.”