Salary freezes, other options available

In Aurora and Naperville, many organizations do an amazing job of serving those with autism, developmental disabilities, those who suffer from substance abuse and victims of domestic violence. Many of these facilities rely heavily on state funding, and the budget cuts proposed by Governor Quinn will force them to close their doors or turn away those in need. For the past several weeks, we have heard story after story from those families whose lives depend on these fine organizations. In fact, more than 50 residents came to our offices recently to share stories of their pain. If these threatened budget cuts are a political ploy to force legislators into supporting an income tax increase, then the governor and his Democratic leaders in Springfield should be extremely ashamed. They should be ashamed for politically framing our state's most vulnerable population. Additionally, we were extremely frustrated at the secretive and sloppy process that bills to fund social service agencies were handled. The entire budget process has proved to be a political game.

While we understand our state's fiscal condition is extremely poor, we believe we need to implement several reforms before we can consider raising the income tax on people during an economic recession. There are plenty of places we can find revenue other than the social service programs that help those in need. We have joined our Republican colleagues in calling for freezing the salaries of state employees, making 10 percent cuts across the board instead of just on social service agencies, a moratorium on new spending and cost-saving reforms for the state's Medicaid and pensions systems.

The doomsday panic approach to solving our budget crisis is irresponsible. We urge our governor and Democratic leaders to quit playing games with the lives of Illinois residents and begin adopting real budget reforms.

Darlene Senger

96thDistrict state representative

Michael Connelly

48th District state representative