You call this a reasonable budget?

Just last night a new budget was passed by the Illinois legislature and the budget crisis was put to rest allowing our legislators to take that much-needed vacation!

One might wonder if we are now done dealing with this whole budget mess...

Well, what those of us providing dire and essential services to Illinoisans who are most in need know is that this budget proposal is just as big a fiasco as the 50% budget that Governor Quinn already vetoed a couple of weeks ago.



The provisions in the new budget are as follows:

-As much as a $5 billion deficit with no measures on how it will be balanced next year

-Borrows over $7 billion from Wall Street and state vendors

-Hides HUGE CUTS to private social service agencies (closer to 30% in cuts), while providing close to 90% funding to other organizations

More specifically, this new budget:

-Borrows $3.5 Billion through the sale of Pension Obligation Notes

-Contains $1 Billion in cuts (most of which will come off the back of Human Service Agencies)

-$1.1 Billion in contingency reserves ON TOP OF the $1 Billion in cuts (meaning more cuts and layoffs for Human Service Agencies)

-Pushes $3.2 Billion in unpaid bills to Fiscal Year 2011

This means that Illinois is now stuck with a HUGE HOLE that will require more cuts later this year if an Income Tax Increase is not passed.

So after months of negotiations, meetings, bill proposals, and hundreds of thousands of man/woman hours logged from Human Service Agencies and the people of Illinois, our elected officials have brilliantly decided that the best thing to do right now is delay making a real decision until, at the earliest, January, take away services from the people of Illinois that need them the most, and borrow our way out of this mess.

Meanwhile, those at the front lines here at Heartland Alliance are trying to figure out how to prepare for the impending overflow of clients that are already beginning to pour in.

I spoke with one of our staff members in our Violence Recovery Services (VRS) Program (provides comprehensive services to victims of domestic violence and sexual violence) yesterday about the domino effect they're experiencing from the state budget cuts. She shared how worried she and the rest of the program staff is about how they are going to handle the increase in client referrals they are already receiving from other Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault programs that have been forced to drastically cut services or completely shut-down.

She also added that VRS has been operating with a waiting list for quite some time now and that she anticipates that list to grow substantially in the coming weeks and months.

She ended the conversation sounding worried stating that it's already so hard for Domestic Violence (DV) survivors to seek help and leave their abusers, so to see their advocates and case managers be taken away from them may be the last straw for many of these women.

Our legislators still need to hear from us to let them know that we will not forget when elections come around in November. There are two ways you can let your voice be heard:

TAKE ACTION and let your legislators know what you think about their so-called "budget"

Participate in the Battered Women's Network July Month of Action events to support DV advocates and help them continue their work by providing life saving services for abused women in Illinois.