Following Governor Rauner’s veto of the entire State budget (other than K-12 funds) last week, today the state government runs out of the authority to spend money on any services or programs. Today, Speaker Madigan presented an emergency one month budget to provide funding for certain essential public safety/disaster response functions and to provide services to certain essential human services where a funding delay could jeopardize the immediate health and wellbeing of the clients.
The one month budget is calculated to be 1/12 of the annual appropriation for provision of direct client and healthcare services only. It does not fund state agency administrators or other expenses. If passed by both the House and Senate, it still must be signed into law by Governor Rauner. Should it become law, it is still strictly up to the Governor as the chief executive officer of the state to whom and when these funds are disbursed.
Here is a quick summary of key programs/services that are provided for in the HB 4190, which you can see here: http://ilga.gov/legislation/99/HB/PDF/09900HB4190ham001.pdf
- Probation services and GPS tracking of sex offenders
- Community Care Program which provides in-home supports to senior citizens
- Elderly meal programs, both in-home and congregate settings
- Veterans Homes food, direct care staff and healthcare services
- Medicaid payments to all hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies, doctors and other providers
- Mental Health: operations of state facilities and grants to community organizations for services to people with Severe Mental Illness
- Inpatient and outpatient addiction treatment services
- WIC nutrition program for women, infants and children
- Childcare services
- Home Services Program which provides supports to people with disabilities
- Operations of state operated facilities for the sexually violent and criminally insane
- School for the Deaf and School for the Visually Impaired
- Independent Living programs for persons with disabilities
- DCFS group home, foster care and protective services, including wards of the state and abuse investigations
- Officer salaries, food and healthcare services for correctional facilities
- Officer salaries, food, healthcare and aftercare services for Juvenile Justice facilities
- National Guard salaries for emergency responders
- State Trooper salaries
- Conservation Police salaries
- Hazard mitigation, emergency response and recovery teams responsible for the protection of nuclear sites or radiological disaster response
- Secretary of State Police and law enforcement services.
The total amount of these appropriations are approximately $2.26 billion. Other services of the state, as well as all other state and federal funds are still unable to be spent by the various departments without passage of a full budget signed into law by the Governor, passage of subsequent temporary emergency budgets, orders of Courts or some appropriations which are considered to be “Continuing Appropriations” . Continuing Appropriations are expenditures of the State which are specifically required by statute even in absence of an annual state budget.
I have always advocated for a comprehensive solution to our state financial situation that fully funds the programs and services that support our most at-risk citizens, supports families and communities. I have supported reasonable cuts and actively support raising responsible new revenue to fund a full budget solution. I will continue to do this until our state financial situation is fully resolved.
I welcome your comments and suggestions. As always I can be reached in Chicago at 773 348 3434 or in Springfield at 217 782 3835, or greg@gregharris.org