As we detailed yesterday, social service agencies have already started to layoff employees and scale back programs as a result of lawmakers failing to pass a state budget for this fiscal year.
Today, the trend continues:
Human Service Agencies Begin Layoffs:
On the last day before the state budget expired, one Aurora social services agency laid off 80 workers and told 1,100 clients with developmental and mental health disabilities that they would lose services.State Budget Limbo Shuts Down MAAEC:
As a result, people with disabilities will lose job training, coaching and counseling, mental health counseling and medication management. The cuts affect group homes and individuals in assisted living in Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles and Elgin. Some who do light packaging assembly will lose their jobs in a week, O'Shea said, and will likely lose their apartments.
A local adult education center made history today by closing its doors for the first time due to state budget cutbacks, said Mattoon Area Adult Education Center Director Mark Nelson.
The shutdown also affects the Lake Land College adult education program connected to MAAEC, Nelson said. The shutdown results in the layoff of eight employees for now. It also ended the scheduling of any summer classes for GED or other programs, he said. Throughout the year, MAAEC helps with education and training for scores of people in East Central Illinois. It also provides child care for many students.
"Blood On the Sidewalk" For Some Social Services:
At the H Group in West Frankfort, administrators cut 33 jobs and 12 employees took pay cuts and demotions, said John Markley, executive director.
Markley estimated the H Group, which provides mental health and addiction services in Williamson and Franklin Counties, will serve 1,000 fewer people this year than the 7,000 served last year.
At Fellowship House in Anna, CEO Mickey Finch said the cuts mean her agency's budget will shrink from $1.7 million to $475,000 this year. Fellowship House provides 24-hour, seven-day-a-week residential rehabilitation, detoxification and prevention services to state-verified drug addicts.
Social-Service Agencies Begin Cuts After Budget Fails:
Twelve of the 33 employees at A Woman's Fund in Urbana already have lost their jobs, said the agency's executive director, Tami Tunnell. And 31 of the 210 staffers at the Mental Health Center of Champaign County were told Wednesday that they are being laid off, said Chief Executive Officer Sheila Ferguson.State Service Agencies Face Cuts:
Kathy Doherty is the head of Between Friends, a domestic violence agency. She says without a guarantee of state funding...the organization immediately made program and staff cuts.
DOHERTY: Cutting services cost lives. We'll be able to serve 3,000 less survivors than we did last year. But in Cook County, 17,000 fewer victims of domestic violence will get served.
For those keeping count at home, just based upon the organizations cited at this blog within the last two days, that is 306 employees laid off and 5,590 clients who won't be provided service because of this budget impasse.
This is just a small sample size however, of what surely is a grim reality that social service agencies throughout the state are having to face. Governor Quinn's statement that there is no guarantee that social service agencies will be paid for current services provided just makes the picture more bleak.
As Progress Illinois points out, this move essentially removes the little wiggle room to operate that many state funded social service agencies had left:
When budget negotiations have broken down in the past, the services had run largely uninterrupted, thanks to "contingency contracts" issued by the governor. What's different this year, the Daily Herald notes, is that the state instead notified the agencies that their contracts would be terminated immediately, leaving some providers feeling like political pawns.Governor Quinn stated yesterday that he’s planning to try and build public support for his opinions until lawmakers reconvene July 14th, whatever those opinions may be. This means that it is time to get out and publicly advocate for the those being hurt by this stalemate in Illinois. Read More......



