LEGISLATIVE LETTER

A public policy publication of

Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI)

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

 

Dear Illinois Lawmakers,

 

Words like “dysfunctional” and “stalemate” have lately become part of the standard lexicon for describing our state government.

 

We’d like to add the word “outrage” to describe the latest round in the battle raging in the Statehouse. Is it really possible that our elected leaders, especially our governor and the legislative leaders, are willing to hurt people in need in our state to gain some kind of political advantage?

 

When we look at the long list of line item and reduction vetoes proposed by Governor Blagojevich, we have a hard time finding anything but outrage to describe our sense of the injustice and lack of compassion exhibited by those developments.

 

We are well aware that the state of Illinois is living through a difficult time fiscally. Current revenue is insufficient to cover the costs of providing all current state services. As with any budget crisis, there are three possible solutions: cut spending, increase revenue or borrow money to cover current expenses. Borrowing to pay for current services makes it harder to balance the budget in the future because of the additional debt burden. Cutting current services for people who are not able to support their own or their families’ basic needs without public support has a nasty way of increasing the use of much costlier emergency services and, in too many cases, leads to involvement in the criminal justice system. Both of those outcomes have huge fiscal and societal costs.

 

The third option, increasing revenue, is a pill that can be difficult to swallow, especially during times of economic uncertainty. At Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, we have, for several years, called for tax and budget reform that would increase state revenue to support vital state services while at the same time reducing the tax impact on those on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder in our state.

 

We, and the thousands of people whom we serve in partnership with state government, are caught in the middle our state government’s exceedingly dysfunctional “Legislative Wars.”

 

Given that, we strongly recommend that the Illinois General Assembly restore appropriations for human services cut by Governor Blagojevich’s line item and reduction vetoes to HB 5701. That will, at least temporarily, ensure that most services to our neediest neighbors are maintained and that a few services, particularly in the areas of child welfare, developmental disabilities, mental illness, substance abuse prevention and treatment and senior services are given modest increases to cope with the increasing cost of providing those services and the increasing demand. In many of those instances, increased investment by the state is automatically matched dollar-for-dollar with federal Medicaid funding. Conversely, cuts in state spending are also automatically matched by cuts in federal funds flowing to Illinois. For instance, the $55 million cut in substance abuse treatment services contained in the governor’s veto message would be “matched” by a loss of $55 million in federal reimbursements. The total impact to programs providing hope for recovery for thousands of people in Illinois would thus be a cut of $110 million.

 

In addition to the cuts in funding for human services contained in the governor’s current plan, he proposes yet more delay in state payments for services already provided by organizations that work with the state to meet the needs of our most vulnerable neighbors. At LSSI, we have recently expanded our line of credit so that we can pay our hard-working and dedicated staff while we wait—sometimes as long as five or six months—for the state to reimburse us for services. The additional cost of borrowing, of course, is not covered by the state. Our plan to provide a very modest cost of living increase for our employees is now in jeopardy because of threatened state budget cuts. Staff attrition and the costs associated with the recruitment and training of new staff puts additional financial stress on our agency and our ability to serve people in need. We note that state employees—including elected officials in all three branches of state government—have rarely missed annual cost of living adjustments. In fact, either by contract or by law, COLAs for state employees are virtually guaranteed from one year to the next.

 

We believe that Governor Blagojevich and every member of the General Assembly are committed to pursuing public policy that supports the common good, as outlined in the preamble to our state constitution.

 

We call on legislators to override the governor’s vetoes of funding for human services and to provide a straight-forward, transparent and fair revenue increase to pay for those services.

 

Like you, our mission is to serve the people of Illinois. As always, we stand ready to assist you in accomplishing your mission. We hope you will accept our challenge to work together to build a more just and more compassionate state for all our people.

 

Respectfully,

(Rev.) Frederick Aigner, Ph.D. President and CEO                     Lutheran Social Services of Illinois 1001 E. Touhy Ave. #50 Des Plaines, IL 60018 847-635-4611 frederick.aigner@LSSI.org www.LSSI.org	(Rev.) Daniel Schwick Assistant to the President Director, Office of Government Relations and Advocacy 1001 E. Touhy Ave. #50 Des Plaines, IL 60018 847-390-1418 dan.schwick@LSSI.org www.LSSI.org