Human service providers face major cuts

SPRINGFIELD — Karen Kuchar knows first hand how budget decisions made in Springfield can reach deep into the lives of suburban residents.

As director of Family Service Center based in Wheaton, Kuchar says she's already turning away domestic abuse victims who come for help, after past funding cuts forced the agency to reduce services.

So more funding cuts, as proposed in Gov. Pat Quinn's new budget, would be painful, she said.

In the first six months of 2010, Kuchar says she turned away hundreds of victims because the shelter was already full due to reduced capacity. Past cuts had forced the organization to make major changes, including converting its locations in Glen Ellyn and Naperville from 24-hour emergency shelters to unstaffed intermediate homes.

In the end, that can cost the state more, she says, because helping people at the most critical moments can potentially prevent problems from dominoing.

“We like to make the case that money invested in these families at critical times really pays off,” she said. “We've seen just remarkable success stories of people who have been able to put their lives back together.”

The Family Shelter Service is just one of many suburban human service agencies that could face budget cuts under Quinn's suggestion to reduce the state's total spending on the department of human services budget by 10 percent. And domestic abuse victims are not the only ones who could lose services.

Quinn's proposal also calls for cuts to drug addiction programs, child care and senior services as well.

The governor, in his budget speech last week, said that while the spending plan could be painful to Illinoisans, there's no choice.

“We are still in a tough fiscal situation. As a result, the spending reductions that I am presenting today are very tough,” Quinn said. “The difficult choices we make today will insure that we are able to provide the essential services to families and businesses across our entire state.”

The governor's budget also would eliminate the Circuit Breaker Program, which provides property tax relief to more than 300,000 seniors and discounted prescriptions to another 188,000 seniors.

Lucia West Jones, executive director of the Northeastern Illinois Area Agency on Aging, said her office processed between 28,000 and 36,000 Circuit Breaker applications a month in 2010 from seniors in Chicago-area counties. Under Quinn's plan, the state's poorest seniors could still get help with medication through the Medicaid program, but the number of elderly who could get help would be reduced.

While those cuts are damaging, Jones said she is most worried about the reductions that would have to be made to the program that provides for meals delivered to seniors at home.

She said seniors who would have to be removed from the meals program would most likely end up in a nursing home, which would ultimately cost the state more money.

“We all realize we have to participate in reductions ... but this brings the hammer down all at one time,” she said. “One in every five persons who receive a home-delivered meal is going to have to be cut from the ranks. Which one do you cut? These are very, very hard decisions.”

Many hard decisions have already been made across all human service agencies because of cuts in past years and the state's delay in paying its bills, said Judith Gethner, director for Illinois Partners for Human Services.

A survey conducted by her organization showed 28 percent of human service agencies ended programs while 48 percent have laid of staff and another 10 percent have skipped payroll.

Human services programs weren't the only targets for Quinn's budget-cutting plans. He also looked at reducing spending on some school spending and eliminating new Illinois State Police cadet classes, for example.

Still, many lawmakers believe Quinn should have proposed spending even less.

House Minority Leader Tom Cross, an Oswego Republican, said after Quinn's speech Wednesday that there will not be a single cut that will please everyone.

“No matter what you cut there will always be someone against it,” he said. “There is no easy cut.”