The Commercial-News, Danville, IL

Local News

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July 16, 2009

State budget means little to local services

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL

DANVILLE — The state budget has passed, but that’s of little comfort to health and human services officials who remain in the dark about what it means for their agencies.

Organizations from Vermilion County Health Department to agencies including CRIS Senior Services and Prairie Center entered the current state fiscal year wondering the extent of cuts they could suffer after a budget was not initially reached in Springfield.

Thom Pollock, director of Crosspoint Human Services, said everything among agencies is pure speculation at this point. The early theory is that human services could receive as much as 86 cents out of every dollar.

For Pollock, that level of funding would mean not filling several personnel vacancies at Crosspoint. That protects the programs and minimizes the effect on current staff.

A budget for the current state fiscal year, which began on July 1, made it through the State House and Senate Wednesday night with little vote opposition. The state spending plan avoids the current deficit of $11 billion and calls for borrowing $3.5 billion while not paying $3.2 billion in bills to the state.

The holes in the budget and how quickly they are handled stand as among the concerns Pollock has about the budget. He said it’s obvious the plan is only a partial budget.

“There are significant holes that they did not address,” Pollock said. “The later they address it, the bigger the hole. If they have to turn around say this income tax is insufficient to cover our current revenues, so we have to cut you a little more.”

Officials for other local agencies, including the Vermilion County Health Department and CRIS Senior Services, were not immediately available on Thursday. Currently, the state owes more than $700,000 to the county health department.

The budget includes $2.1 billion in spending cuts and allows for as much as $1 billion in additional cuts later. As part of the budget plan, legislators left the decision on where cuts should be made to Quinn by putting funds into lump amounts to use where he sees fit.

State Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, said he voted for the budget Wednesday night, but indicated the future looks bleak.

“If they think it was tough to come up with a budget this year …,” he said Thursday. He added the plan is intended to get the state through 2009, but he’d be surprised if it lasts the full budget year.

“The day of reckoning is fast approaching,” Black said.

Black said there was no acceptable alternative to the approved budget that everyone in the General Assembly would agree to.

“The choice was, you vote on a cobbled up budget that we all know is built on a foundation of toothpicks and borrowed money or you shut down government and work 4-6 weeks to come up with something that could be more palatable.”

State Sen. Michael Frerichs, D-Gifford, could not be reached for comment.

According to Black, he expects services such as Prairie Center and the Center for Children’s Services to be funded at about 80 to 85 percent. But organizations should be prepared to deal with a decreased level of spending each year from now on.

He pointed out that, among the budget votes, that legislators will not receive a pay raise and the number of furlough days was bumped to 12.

“The bottom line is we have a budget,” he said. “We spent $2 billion less than we did last year.”

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