Hundreds of people jammed a state legislative hearing on proposed cuts to the human services budget Tuesday, forcing lawmakers to move the meeting to a large auditorium to accommodate everyone concerned about the cuts’ effects.
More than 500 people, many in wheelchairs, filled the hallways outside a 16th-floor meeting room in the James R. Thompson Center in the Loop, where the House Human Services Appropriations Committee was holding a hearing on the proposed 2003 budget for the Illinois Department of Human Services. Committee members discussed ways to get people’s statements into the record without letting them into the room, but when that produced loud objections and grumbling from the crowd, they moved the meeting to an auditorium on a lower floor.
The department has been told to cut its budget 5.5 percent across the board and has targeted dozens of programs for even deeper cuts or elimination. In all, the department is cutting $12 million in community services across the board and $7.6 million in targeted programs.
Concerns expressed at Tuesday’s hearing were wide-ranging. Parents said state cuts in spending on day care for children would increase costs to low-income families; hospital executives pleaded for changes in Medicaid reimbursements, arguing that the current rates are affecting their ability to provide services; and others made dire predictions of programs for developmentally disabled young adults that would be shut down entirely, of children whom they feared would end up in nursing homes and of the negative effects that reduced prescription benefits would have on the poor.
“This budget as proposed is devastating to people with disabilities across the state,” said Don Moss, executive director of United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois.
The effects of the cuts could be compounded for some groups because they receive funding from more than one state agency, and most will be scaling back their funding as well, said Janet Stover, executive director of the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, before the hearing.
Some groups at the hearing suggested the state raise taxes instead of reducing appropriations. Kenneth Robbins of the Illinois Hospital Association suggested raising taxes on cigarettes and gambling.
Advocates for the disabled have expressed alarm about the future of services in Illinois since late last year, when Gov. George Ryan announced a series of cutbacks to address the budget shortfall. After some groups publicized their problems, Ryan rescinded some cuts, including those to some hospitals and to a residential facility for disabled children and young adults on the West Side.
