The State of Illinois is in poor fiscal shape; there’s no disagreement about that. The State needs about $4 billion dollars more than it is expected to take in this year. Had Governor Bruce Rauner agreed to extend the expired income tax increase, the State would only be short $1 billion.
The Senate Appropriations hearing calls for reducing the Department of Human Services spending by more than $500 million. DHS (Medicaid) funds allow disabled persons to live independently, instead of in nursing homes. $110 million will be slashed from the program by changing eligibility criteria. The “Determination of Need” was raised. People could lose access to home-based assistance, if the July 1, 2016, budget include these cuts.
The proposal also affects family and community service programs; support for immigrants; adults and children with disabilities; people with mental illness and addictions.
The product of State Government can be seen in our roads, schools, court system, prisons, etc. There is also a cost for taking care of our poor and mentally ill. Medicare is not free, [the State budget must be] pro-healthcare.
- Our mentally ill need treatment.
- Battered women need shelter.
- The homeless need shelter and assistance.
The people of Illinois would not balance the State’s budget on the backs of the poor and mentally ill. They have proven that–by passing a proposition to tax millionaires 3% for the benefit of public education–in 100 of the 102 Counties, by a margin of 63.65% Statewide.
The Governor is supposedly a sharp businessman. Reducing your price and cheapening your product, to the point that no one wants it, is the route to bankruptcy. That is what he is doing to our State. Lack of funding for the mentally ill makes no fiscal sense, nor is it sound public policy. It shoves the cost to local Government and leaves people without care.
Often enough, the uncared-for mentally ill end up in our jails. That means they are victims. Usually the offenses they commit are rather minor, except when you are the victim; then it is not so minor. When your bi-polar teenage son or daughter goes off their meds and disappears, that is very worrying for a parent. Having a family member who gets violent when not medicated is dangerous. Our jails are not mental health institutions.
Eventually, these ill people have to be released untreated. The cost to our society is more than just dollars. The injuries and wounds people suffer are not so easily erased.
Any “sane” manager of public affairs would see to it that mental health is sufficiently funded to meet the State’s needs. Failure to do so shows a callous disregard for the suffering of people, as does failure to fund programs for battered women, the poor, and the homeless.
So, who is really insane? Maybe it’s Governor Bruce Rauner.