By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – Local human service providers have been waiting for nearly a full year without state funding because of the state budget impasse and they say they can’t wait any longer.
Rickielee Benecke, Advocacy and Advancement Director with the Bloomington-based Life Center for Independent Living said the agency that assisted disabled has already cut back to four days a week, three days in Pontiac and cut staff 20 percent, with darker days ahead if there’s no state funding by July 1.
PODCAST: Listen to the news conference
“We have fulfilled our end of the bargain, we have provided services and fulfilled our contract obligations, now it it time for the General Assembly and the governor to fulfill their end,” Benecke said.
The agency known as Life CIL is already owed $108,000 from the state. With no state budget, the agency would lose out on another $174,000 from the federal government.
“That amount of money in a small organization would be devastating and there’s no way we can fundraise and make that up,” Life CIL executive director Gail Kear said.
Kear added LIFE CIL has served 2,100 disabled residents in McLean, DeWitt, Ford and Livingston counties in the past year. Several other area agencies that work with people with disabilities joined Life CIL in a morning news conference to also outline fiscal difficulties caused by the lack of a state spending plan.
Nancy McClellan-Hickey, Executive Director of PACE which serves Douglas, Edgar, Piatt, Champaign and Vermillion counties said
“This is without a doubt the worst year we’ve ever had,” McClellan-Hickey said of her 30 years at PACE since its founding.
She said the agency has had to cut staff by laying off two of its 12 workers, downsize two workers to 3/4 time and add unpaid furlough days for the rest of the staff, while PACE uses a line of credit to pay its bills.
Jodi Scott, Director of Operations for Advocates for Access which provides disability assistance in Peoria, Tazewell, Fulton and Woodford counties, said the agency is owed $210,000 and has left three vacant positions unfilled with the possibility that a fourth job could be eliminated if the state doesn’t provide funding soon.
“The natural consequences of these vacancies being a delay in providing services,” Scott said, adding there’s a “very real threat of going from partially operational to having to close our doors.”
Benecke delivered a message for lawmakers who have been fighting over the budget for a year now.
“A million people are depending on you, many of them literally with their lives,” Benecke said.
Benecke and other local providers plan to attend a rally outside the Illinois Capitol at 7 p.m. Tuesday to urge lawmakers to pass a budget. The event is being organized by a grassroots group called “Get It Done Illinois.”
Friday would mark one year without a budget for Illinois. Gov. Bruce Rauner and Illinois Democratic leaders have been unable to resolve their differences over a spending plan.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
