Rescue Dog Adoption Day

We had rescue cat adoption day….and now the rescue dogs get equal time. Join us at Bridgeview Bank Andersonville this Saturday between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. (5117 N. Clark) for rescue dog adoption day with Famous Fido Rescue. Stop by and meet some really great dogs who need a home, or if you can’t adopt, please make a donation to sponsor a rescue dog that desperately needs care:  http://www.famousfidorescue.com/

Marriage Equality

Yesterday, along with my colleagues Rep. Deb Mell, Kelly Cassidy, Ann Williams and Sara Feigenholtz and Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, I introduced the Illinois Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act.  This law will provide full marriage equality for all Illinoisans at the state level. You can see the language of the introduced bill here:  http://ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=84&GA=97&DocTypeId=HB&DocNum=5170&GAID=11&LegID=65291&SpecSess=&Session=

Since last summer, thousands of committed Illinois couples have been united in Civil Unions, but until we achieve full marriage equality in all 50 states, and until the federal government repeals DOMA and treats all Americans equally in the eyes of the law, there is still work to be done.  They call it a “struggle for equal rights” for a reason.  This will not be quick, nor will it be easy. However, if fair-minded Illinoisans work with their faith communities, advocacy groups, friends, neighbors and elected officials to demand equality….it can happen here. 

This week was especially meaningful for marriage equality throughout the U.S.  The Federal Court of Appeals in the 9^th Circuit overturned the California marriage ban, saying: “it singles out same-sex couples for unequal treatment by taking away from them alone the right to marry, and this action amounts to a distinct constitutional violation because the Equal Protection Clause protects minority groups from being targeted for the deprivation of an existing right without a legitimate reason.”

Moments after the Illinois Marriage Fairness Act was introduced, the legislature in the State of Washington overwhelming voted for marriage equality there on a bipartisan vote, just as the legislature of New York recently did. Now it is our turn in Illinois to lobby our elected officials, talk to our neighbors, and enlist the assistance of business leaders, faith leaders and allies across Illinois to do the next right thing.  I look forward to the fight and to our next victory.

Budget Woes

Now for the bad news…while we continue to work on other legislation, the state’s budget woes loom large over everything else.  This week the House Democrats had a caucus to discuss the current situation and the near-term prospects prior to the Governor’s Budget Speech on February 22.  While there are signs of hope in the economy, the overall budget picture continues to be clouded by the costs associated with our pension and Medicaid contributions.  Here are some key facts and figures to consider:

• ·         FY12 Revenue and Expense Projections (as of January, 6 months into the Fiscal Year)
  • o   Individual Income Taxes are coming in slightly higher than projection, while corporate income taxes are slightly lower. (The tax breaks approved for CME and Sears do not take effect until next fiscal year).
  • o   Sales taxes continue to over perform by $397 million.
  • o   Gaming taxes underperform substantially.
  • o   Federal (mostly Medicaid) sources are $1.3 billion below projections, causing a drag on the entire budget. This is due to the backlog of unpaid bills.
  • o   We projected total revenue of $35.033 billion, are now anticipating only $34.019 billion for FY12. 
• ·         Pension Obligations
  • o   Our pension obligation for FY12 was $4.868 billion, and is projected for FY13 to be $5.825 billion, an increase of $957 million. A major component of the increase was a $581 million increase in the actuarial assumptions underlying some of the plans.
  • o   78% of this cost is for workers who are NOT employed by the State of Illinois (they are employed by local school districts, community colleges and universities, which do not pay their employer share. The taxpayers of the State have paid the employer contributions.)
  • o   The changes to unfunded liability (including actuarial changes and implementation of the 2 Tier pension system is currently projected to be $57.927 billion by 2045 (including $10.634 billion in actuarial assumption changes, and investment returns to be $18.742 billion less than projected. Keep in mind that these numbers are continually changing as the markets and underlying actuarial assumptions change.)
• ·         Medicaid Liability (assuming 2% annual growth)
  • o   Medicaid cash spend from the General Revenue Fund (GRF) is expected to grow from $7.095 billion in FY12 to $7.315 billion in FY17 (inclusive of federal match)
  • o   Other related fund GRF cash spend (e.g. Healthcare Provider, LTC and Hospital Provider Relief Funds) is expected to decrease from $2.294 billion to $1,835 billion (inclusive of federal match)
  • o   Meanwhile, estimated unpaid bills on hand  will grown from $1.772 billion in FY12 to $21.002 billion in FY17
  • o   Again, changes in eligibility, utilization, rate or federal participation could vastly change these numbers

I am working with a bi-partisan group of legislators on short-term and long-term solutions to our pension problems. As a member of the Joint Medicaid Committee, I will be working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both the House and Senate to address these alarming numbers, as well.  The size of the problem on the expense side is so enormous that any solution that we develop will cause substantial hardship for one group or another. There is no way of finding easy or painless solutions.  I will try to keep you informed of the various options that are on the table, their potential financial effects and their human toll. 

As always, I welcome your thoughts and advice. I can be reached in Chicago at 773 348 3434, at the Capitol at 217 782 3835 or at greg@gregharris.org

Emmanuel Garcia interviews IL Rep. Greg Harris (D-13) on a recent meeting he had with other IL lawmakers and LGBT groups about the possibility of introducing a new marriage bill in 2013.
IL Lawmakers Organize To Turn Civil Unions Into Marriage by Storyboard

On the blustery cold Christmas Eve night of 1988, Greg Harris found himself driving in circles.

With just one hot meal left to deliver in Rogers Park and the temperature plummeting, Harris considered going home. He couldn’t find the building, and he and another volunteer had been driving for hours.

A few months earlier, in August, Harris and others had made a promise. Harris was part of a rag-tag group of LGBT Chicagoans and allies who watched their community not just die of AIDS complications, but die hungry and often alone.

“We’re going to make sure that no one in the city of Chicago who has AIDS goes hungry,” Harris had said.

So despite the cold and his own fatigue, Harris found his way to a door at the end of a tight gangway. Sitting behind the door covered in blankets was a man who had been waiting for hours for his only meal of the day. The man was relieved he had not been forgotten.

Harris broke down and cried.

“You’re not just delivering meals, you’re delivering life to people,” he recalled.

What started as a holiday meal run for people with AIDS in 1988, would quickly evolve into a citywide movement and later Chicago’s largest food provider for people with HIV, Open Hand Chicago ( now Vital Bridges Center on Chronic Care ) .

It started in apartment kitchens, said Lori Cannon, a founder of Open Hand and current food program coordinator of Vital Bridges.

Cannon, who served on the Chicago steering committee for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, had just finished work on the quilt’s display at Navy Pier. Toward the end of the summer, she said, she found herself with “postpartum blues.”

Cannon, Harris, healthcare advocate Matthew Hamilton and others decided to do something they had largely all been doing on their own for friends. They started making meals and delivering them personally.

“We knew we had to feed people,” said Cannon. “It’s really a testament to a community that cared when no one else did.”

Volunteers had spent the summer planning and chose Christmas Eve for the first delivery. They cooked the meals in Hamilton’s apartment and then drove out in teams of two.

“It was so cold, it was too cold to snow, but there were crystals in the air,” Cannon said.

Cannon was working as a bus driver at the time, and she painstakingly charted the routes for 35 meals, five routes with seven stops each. She remembers the details of these routes sometimes better than major dates.

The first routes included stops in Lakeview, Albany Park, Humboldt Park, Rogers Park, and from Hyde Park to 137th Street. Cannon still jokes that had Harris just followed her directions, he never would have lost his way driving. Harris admits that is probably true.

Just a few days later on Jan. 2, 1989, the group began regular meal deliveries, cooking in apartments and bringing food by car or by foot.

Founders had adopted the name “Open Hand Chicago” for their budding organization, inspired Project Open Hand in San Francisco, which was founded in 1985 with a similar model.

Project Open Hand, however, differed from the Chicago model in one key area. The San Francisco organization ran an independent kitchen. Chicago’s meals were coming out people’s homes.

It was something that Cannon and others had not considered as potentially problematic as their operation started to grow.

It was, however, something on the mind of local restaurateur Tom Tunney. Tunney was active in his community’s battle with AIDS, and he housed the offices of various AIDS organizations in the building housing his Lakeview restaurant, Ann Sather.

“I didn’t think we could support an independent volunteer-run kitchen and do it safely,” he said.

Tunney offered the kitchen of his Lakeview restaurant to Open Hand Chicago. “We’re already preparing food every day,” he told them.

In addition to preparing meals for customers, the Ann Sather kitchen began rolling out two meals a day for Open Hand Chicago. The kitchen sent bagged lunches and hot meals all over the city, and volunteers delivered them by car and by foot.

As a result, Tunney’s restaurant suffered from the same stigma that was sweeping the nation during a time when AIDS meant death.

“We had people calling,” he said. “They wouldn’t eat at Ann Sather anymore because ‘they would get AIDS.’”

Tunney didn’t budge.

“It was something that we needed to do for our community,” he said. “Nuts or not, this is what we wanted to do. I didn’t worry what other people thought.”

In the end, Tunney believes his business thrived as a result. His community came in droves to support the restaurant, which began to feel like a community center for many LGBT people.

Open Hand Chicago also grew with support. The organization quickly went from delivering 35 meals to delivering 100. Within its first few years, the organization was feeding more than 300 people.

The meals that Open Hand delivered were often both the only food and the only human contact that clients would have all day. Sometimes rejected by their families and fighting a misunderstood disease, people with AIDS were often abandoned to their own care.

It was volunteers, said Cannon, who quietly administered to both the health and hearts of Open Hand clients. Many of those volunteers still work with the organization. Cannon calls them the “unsung heroes” of the organization.

Perhaps not coincidentally, many who helped start Open Hand would later become some of the best-known leaders in Chicago’s LGBT community and beyond.

Tunney is currently the 44th Ward alderman. James Cappleman, who referred clients to Open Hand when he was a social worker, is currently serving as alderman of the 46th Ward. Modesto “Tico” Valle, an early volunteer, is the CEO of Center on Halsted. Harris is the 13th District State Representative and was a major force in pushing through the civil-unions law in Illinois.

Still, all who remember the early days of Open Hand share a similar resignation when talking about their service. The organization is not one that lends itself to self-congratulation. For many, there was nothing charitable about their volunteer work. Their friends and chosen families were dying; it would have been indecent not to do something.

Service was sometimes a coping mechanism, something active and helpful to do, rather than just watching people die.

“Everybody wanted to do something that was hands-on,” Cannon said. “We had all been turned into medieval people where death was our constant companion.”

Most who cooked and delivered meals that night, however, passed away. Taken by the virus, many of the earliest Open Hand volunteers died by the early 1990s.

“I’m one of the few people I knew back in the day that is still alive,” said Harris, who is open his own HIV-positive status.

For Cannon, working at Open Hand from the start often meant watching the arch of the virus take hold on those she worked with.

“They were volunteers,” Cannon said. “They became clients. Then they were patches on the quilt.”

But while many were taken by AIDS, new volunteers kept coming to Open Hand. Over time, the organization would grow into one of the city’s most powerful forces against HIV/AIDS.

In July 2011, the agency merged with Heartland Health outreach. Since it was founded in 1988, Vital Bridges has provided more than 10 million meals to needy clients. After mergers with other agencies over the years, their work expanded, and they can also boast of providing 600,000 nights of shelter and 250,000 hours of counseling to more than 10,000 clients.

The annual Vital Bridges Holiday brunch is Sunday, Dec. 4, at the Four Seasons Hotel. See http://www.vitalbridges.org/ .

By Claire Vriezen, claire.vriezen@iowastatedaily.com

Catholic Social Services splits from Illinois diocese, will offer same-sex adoptions
November 11, 2011
Pledging to adhere to state legislation requiring equal treatment for same-sex couples in adoption
and foster-care services, Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois is separating from the Diocese
of Belleville. The agency will now be called Christian Social Services of Illinois.
“The Catholic Diocese of Belleville has announced that Catholic Social Services of Southern Illinois
(CSS), consistently one of the most highly rated providers of foster care and other social services in
the State of Illinois, is separating from the Diocese of Belleville,” the diocese said in a statement. “It
will no longer be connected to or sponsored by the Diocese.”
“Unable to remain faithful to the moral teaching of the Catholic Church while adhering to the
Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act, the 64-year-old social service agency
chose to disassociate from the Diocese. It is hoped that this new entity will experience no
interruption in its services and programs.”
“Catholic Social Services, incorporated in 1947 as Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Belleville,
will separate from The Catholic Diocese of Belleville,” the agency said in a separate statement.
“This action is being taken so that the agency, which will be known as Christian Social Services of
Illinois, may adhere to the new State of Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union
Act.”
“This solution is what is best for the children by providing for their continuity of care and allowing
for the retention of the caring, dedicated and professional staff employed by the agency,” said Gary
Huelsmann, the agency¶s executive director