Disabled advocates eye budget as a test

Tuesday, April 2, 2002

Illinois state government is facing a $1 billion budget shortfall as the new fiscal year approaches. State services to the disabled are likely to suffer deep cuts as a result.

Gov. George Ryan's budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 calls for $38 million in cuts for programs aimed at helping the developmentally disabled and another $20 million in cuts for programs benefiting the mentally ill.

Lawmakers in both parties have decided for now that the best election year strategy is to sit back and let Ryan make the cutback decisions. The governor is a lame duck whose term ends at the end of the year. Nearly everyone in the General Assembly, Republican and Democrat, is seeking re-election, and all the indications are that the politicians think they are better off if they let Ryan make the decisions about cutbacks. Apparently they think it's easier to campaign as a "do-nothing" Legislature than to get involved in the budget-balancing process.

A group of parents, care providers and other advocated for the disabled are trying to change that by making aid to the disabled a litmus paper issue in the fall campaign. A story in Monday's Southtown reported that these advocates are warning lawmakers they will punish politicians who fail to support them in the budget process. "Anybody not supporting us can count on packing their bags in November," said the director of a south suburban center that provides job training and other services for developmentally disabled adults.

Several agencies in the Southland that provide similar services warned that the governor's budget will lead to staff cuts and service reductions that will reduce the number of available slots in their programs. In addition, the state cutbacks will lead to reductions in federal funding that will further squeeze the agencies.

But at the same time the grassroots effort gets under way to protect service for the disabled, lawmakers will be getting pressure of another sort from competing interests — among them the gambling industry and tobacco companies, which have already fired up their campaign funding machinery. They are making hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to the same lawmakers and their party leaders.

Their aim is to persuade politicians not to raise taxes on casinos and cigarettes, or to cut subsidies to the horse racing industry.

The debate this spring in Springfield promises to be a classic conflict between the interests of the people whose votes put the lawmakers in office and those of the contributors who pay for their campaigns.

Lawmakers and the party leaders will have a chance during these budget debates to show who it is they really work for.