Urge full funding to help disabled

While I would like to think that the governor and legislature care about Illinois citizens with disabilities, their recent actions would indicate just the opposite.

Since February, when the governor first proposed his budget for fiscal year 2016, disability constituencies have been contacting him, along with their senators and state representatives, imploring them to resolve their differences and pass a state budget that does no harm to people with disabilities.

Illinois is now well past the May 31 deadline and we are not even close to resolving our budget impasse. As we head into August, the greatest concern is whether or not the state will live up to its promise of support for individuals in need.

Each day of the impasse further delays the issuance of reimbursements that support more than 40,000 individuals with an intellectual, physical or other developmental disability.

Illinois' disability support system, already in a fragile state due to years of underfunding, is on the verge of collapse as the state uses the charitable nature of most organizations to finance the services that Illinois should be paying for.

On the other hand, despite overwhelming opposition from the electorate, Gov. Rauner and the legislature just enacted a bill to make bobcat hunting legal in Illinois. At almost the same time, legislation was signed to bring back "happy hours" in communities across Illinois.

It's a shame that bobcats and booze have a higher priority than budget issues that impact the lives of thousands of individuals with disabilities.

People certainly deserve more consideration than bobcats and booze. Please contact the governor and your legislators to express your outrage and tell them to ensure full funding for Illinois' disability programs.

Robert Okazaki

Park Ridge