By: GEORGE ALEXANDRAKIS
Medill Illinois News Bureau
Article Summary:
- Health and human service advocates gathered at a watch party at the Illinois State Library across the street from the Illinois State Capitol to watch Gov. JB Pritzker’s budget address.
- The lobbyists expressed concern after Pritzker’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal included only a 1.6% spending increase and didn’t increase funding for community-based programs.
- Providers warned that flat funding combined with rising operating costs and continuing funding cuts at the federal level could strain services statewide.
SPRINGFIELD — Lobbyists representing a coalition of health and human service organizations across Illinois packed a room Wednesday in the Illinois State Library to watch Gov. JB Pritzker’s annual budget address and came away concerned.
The lead organizer for the event and executive director of Illinois Partners for Human Service, Lauren Wright, said she was disappointed to not hear any mention of health and human services from Pritzker, but said she remained optimistic that the topic would be addressed in further conversations. Pritzker’s proposal kicks off a budget negotiating process in the General Assembly that usually concludes at the end of May.
“Community-based human services are vital and, in this moment, cannot be sacrificed,” Wright said. “The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of human services.”
Pritzker’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 calls for a 1.6% spending increase, a far cry from past years when base revenue sources were growing at a faster pace.
Pritzker said his budget “levels off and in some cases reduces programs that are important to me,”
“But I believe that the imperative of responsible governance and overcoming the fiscal irresponsibility of past decades must come ahead of the interest of any one politician, program or party,” he added.
At the health and human services coalition watch party across the street, several attendees let out audible sighs at the line. Otherwise, the participants frequently clapped and murmured in agreement as the governor spoke, despite the speech falling short of addressing any budget allocation to health and human services they were hoping for.
“I was hoping to hear that there would be marginal increases in support for things that impact not only TASC, but our partner organizations,” said Joel Johnson, the CEO of Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, a nonprofit organization specializing in care coordination for people with substance abuse issues and mental health disorders. “Flat funding is not sustainable.”
The Illinois Partners for Human Services coalition has 850 partners and is registered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, according to their website.
Amber Kirchhoff, senior vice president for public policy at Thresholds, one of Illinois’ largest mental health providers, said that thin margins would cause any stagnant funding to have a more severe effect than it would otherwise.
“We have 1,200 employees and the cost of our employee health insurance is tremendous,” she said. “Trying to manage all those costs while not receiving increases in reimbursement that we get for delivering services is increasingly difficult.”
Approximately 4,000 Thresholds clients could be affected by impending Medicaid eligibility changes contained in President Donald Trump’s recently passed domestic policy law, Kirchhoff said. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family services has projected the state could lose as much as $51 billion in total federal funding for Medicaid over the next decade, with 300,000-500,000 residents losing coverage. Medicaid covers approximately 3.4 million people.
Andrea Durbin, CEO of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, said that she was concerned about federal cuts to afterschool programs, which are services her company has tried to strengthen.
“There are lawsuits going on right now to try to protect afterschool funding that the federal government is trying to cut,” Durbin said. “(After-school programs) are how parents know that their kids are safe after school so they can be in the workforce.”
Durbin added that after-school programs contribute to higher graduation rates and noted the 15-year high graduation rate Pritzker touted in his address.
“We’re contributing to that 15-year high,” she said.
Lawmakers will now spend the coming months negotiating a final spending package before FY27 begins on July 1st. Members of the coalition said they will try to push for increases to budget allocations for health and human services in that time in hopes they can be included.
Pritzker addressed the threat of impending budget cuts in his budget speech.
“So as we embark on this journey of maintaining our state’s now re-established record of fiscal responsibility, I want to say to anyone on either side of the aisle: If you want to talk about our FY 2027 budget, you must first demand the return of the money and resources this president has taken from the people of Illinois,” he said.
George Alexandrakis is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications, and is a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
