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good morning my name is Kathy Dre I'm the vice president of advocacy for the American Lung Association in Illinois welcome and thank you for attending this very interesting and perhaps historical press conference today this very unusual group representing diverse organizations from across the state stands together to stress the impact to the people of Illinois if our programs and services are not funded two things have brought us together recently number one all of the organization's represented here today are unfortunately in the eighteen percent of the state budget that remains unappropriated or unpaid obviously this group does not include all organizations that are not being paid and I want to stress that we did not intend to exclude anyone or to offend anyone we just started making calls on Thursday and we we just you know honestly we all just met today so this is kind of an unusual press conference some people couldn't make it was too short of no's notice obviously some people could but it's just it's a very historic that even this group was able to get together in such a short amount of time number two last wednesday w you is released an article titled past-due State Fair is still on despite lack of budget and this article is in your press packet the article states that even though the funding for the Illinois State bear and the duquoin State Fair is unappropriated the fares will go on as usual the fares are in the same eighteen percent of the state budget as the rest of our organizations here today in the last month we have watched eighty-two percent of the state budget be finalized either through continuing appropriations court orders or being signed into law all of our programs are in the remaining eighteen percent that is not appropriated or paid and our concerns regarding the budget have obviously escalated of course state employees need to be paid school needs to start Medicaid costs need to be covered etc and yes even the state fairs need to go on for all the reasons that are stated in the article there's been a large investment ready there is a positive large economic impact for Springfield and de Coyne and certainly it would hurt the fairs represent reputations if they were canceled and they would lose credibility it is logical that all these entities are paid it is logical that the fairs continue as they have for many years but that same logic also applies to all of the programs and services represented here today some of the programs represented to you here today are large and some of them are small but together we have an enormous impact statewide every single day of the year the lack of state funding is crippling critical state services that the people of Illinois rely on first I would like to introduce state senator Heather stains the chairperson of the Senate Appropriations one committee to say a few words thank you um so I just want to make a couple quick points on this um we know and as we've been seeing this unfold over time with the lack of a budget place how much of our budget really is committed pension payments are required to go out the door there continuing appropriations we see them getting paid we see getting paid Medicaid as we've been going through court case decisions on that that Medicaid around children it hurts access if they don't continue to get paid we're seeing that around a number of other different court cases having to do with providing services for mentally ill people developmental disabilities much of our budget is very much set in stone and not flexible so the burden of not having a state budget put in place now is falling on a smaller smaller group of providers the state is relies on social service partners to deliver a lot of our services that's a model that we've worked out over numerous years and we are being horrible partners at the moment with these providers and I'm what I'm very concerned about is that we're putting at risk that whole infrastructure it's not easily put back in place if it crumbles every single day just about I'm hearing from another social service provider in my district and what they're having to do to try to get through the fact that they don't have a budget yesterday I met with another one who's now down out of us at a small number of ftes or down four and a half positions their organization and they're totally operating on reserves they can only do that for about another month they're going to then have to let go people who have stayed in their nonprofit even though they've been solicited and constantly wooed to go to a big large corporate law firm to try to help people get citizenship they've stayed in their local non profit because the mission and wanting to help people who can't afford to get pay lawyers to get citizenship to stay there and do it there if they lose they'll never get them back and this is happening over and over and every nonprofit you can't just rebuild that infrastructure once it's lost child care we've been losing thousands of situations now where we have kids not accessing child care centers right now my district we have hundreds of those alone but it's statewide and I know there's thousands again these take up seats in small nonprofits and small child care centers all the way to the very big childhood centers that can maybe hang on for a couple months without getting reimbursement or payment for folks but can't possibly do that for an extended period of time and the small ones are going to be hurting much sooner than that today we're going to be putting forth at least a federal funds budget I sure hope we can get agreement on that I've been talking to Republican counterpoints and the governor's office around it the federal funds budget that we're putting forth is exactly in line with what governor budget the governor rauner's budget proposal had been when he issued his budget in February we're using all of his numbers on the gut federal funds available doing this alone will take that eighteen percent down even further on what's not getting done in the budget can help ensure that we're making payments for women and children programs some of the early childhood programs some of the assessment programs that we've been reading about in some of the media where schools don't know whether they can have assessments in place and on and on and on and low-income energy assistance programs there's federal dollars for again this is not the way to be running the ship we know that we need an overall comprehensive solution I think we've certainly seen overtures on our part in my caucus at least to try to get to that and be a good operating partner and negotiate in good faith but we that doesn't preclude us we need to get a budget we need it now we can't undo the infrastructure for all these social service agencies that we cannot possibly put back together and we need to hold up the state's end of the partnership with all of these providers thank you next we will have a representative of each organization give a very brief rundown on the impact of their programs in the interest of time we will have each person introduce themselves and give a brief two to three minute statement and i'm going to start again i'm kathy dre and i'm from the American Lung Association in Illinois and we host the Illinois tobacco quit line in our office in Springfield it's open seven days a week from 7am to 11pm in fiscal year 14 the Illinois tobacco quit line took 96,000 calls from residents of Illinois who wished to stop using tobacco products it was projected to receive a hundred and ten thousand calls in fiscal year 15 but was closed for four weeks due to what became known as the Good Friday massacre the quit line employees 27 full-time employees many of which are highly trained medical professionals some of these employees are multilingual so that they can counsel the people of our very diverse state the staff would be very difficult to replace the quit line has a success rate and unheard of success rate of forty three percent in comparison most cessation programs have a success rate of about twenty percent and people who try to quit smoking on their own have about a five percent success rate the quit line has over 500 partner statewide including hospitals medical clinics local health departments etc who refer smokers to the service every state in the nation has a quit line if the Illinois tobacco quit line is not funded Illinois will be the only state to not have a quit line the quit line is funded through the tobacco settlement recovery fund which is a result of a lawsuit between the state and the tobacco companies the state currently receives about 250 million dollars from the tobacco companies every year this money was to be used to end the tobacco use and the resulting disease and death tax payer dollars do not support the Illinois tobacco quit line most important the Illinois Medicaid programs total costs caused by treating tobacco related to zay disease is 1.9 billion dollars almost 2 billion dollars you want to shake up Springfield more money should be spent to help smokers quit and to keep kids from starting to use tobacco products it is extremely short-sighted to eliminate the funding for the Illinois tobacco quit line when nearly 2 billion dollars of our state Medicare costs a year our jury like directly related to tobacco use the quit line is currently open are the American Lung Association has has promised to keep it open as long as they can every single day we talk about closing it I expect right now for it to be open through the end of august but after that all 27 employees will be laid off and the int the illinois tobacco quit line will cease to exist so next thank you good morning my name is Bill crave and I'm the director of the lessee Bates Davis neighborhood house or a hundred-year-old United Methodist community center in east st. louis and we've come here today for me st. Louis to talk about the devastation that's causing the budget impasse that is causing so many of our families we serve about 20,000 families every year we employ about 250 persons from the st. Clair Madison County area and right now because of the budget impasse there are thousands of parents who are struggling to meet some of the basic needs for their children and families right now we have enough revenue to last for about another month if the budget isn't made we're going to have to lay off about 200 staff within the next 30 days I brought a couple parents with me who are going to specifically talk about two of the programs that are really having a devastating impact on the people in our community and they'll introduce themselves hello my name is Fletcher Springfield and I'm here about the team reach program I am here today to ask the governor and our legislators to start working a lot harder to get the state budget passed before our children go back to school and a couple of weeks the state budget has to get past for our children to keep the team reach program as a parent in East st. Louis Community I know how important it is my child have a place to go after school my children have been a part of the neighborhood house and TVs program for the past year and it's truly been a blessing to our entire family I have been able to volunteer some time at the team fish program and I have seen firsthand how important the children become positive about this program and they learn to grow and become more involved in community through different service learning projects that the program actually provides the neighborhood house team reach program is helping more than 200 children youth and families learn and grow in our community and I know the team reach program is helping thousands of children and youth and hundreds of communities throughout Illinois the team reach program has proven to be able to help children and youth better in schools and I know that this true for my children the team reach program and the staff are helping the children and youth taco tough problems and become excited about learning especially in areas like math and science the team reach program also provides leadership training conflict resolution career preparation for all older youth that actually visit the program okay thank you hi I'm Ronnie kuma klan tree I'm from East st. Louis another seven and as you know the governor said he was helping you know to lift people out of poverty and he is about helping people get jobs the neighborhood house has helped a lot of parents get jobs and often out of the st. Louis Community many of our parents do not get back over this side of the river it's about six thirty seven o'clock it is really important as a parent and there's all our parents to know that our children have a safe place to go after school through team reach program I also want to ask the governor to please drop the freeze on the child care assistance and put the eligibility criteria back to where there was a couple of months ago again we have hundred the parents who have recently completed job training programs who currently have jobs and can work full time and be employed but with the freeze on the shocker it's hard for them to go to work on behalf of all the parents from the st. Louis Greater East st. Louis area throughout the state I am excellent over and legislators so please support the after school and out of school programs like the team reach program and to lift the freeze off the child care assistance thank you and have a good day good morning my name is Tom Hughes I am executive director of the Illinois public health association and thank you senator stains for your leadership on this issue i'm here today to represent the state's oldest and largest public health association we have 7,000 members across the state of Illinois and I'm here in particular today on behalf of local public health departments were the people who go out and make sure that your restaurants are safe and clean when you dine out we immunize your children when they're born and again before they go to school we run dental clinics for the underserved populations we run WIC and family case management programs to ensure healthy moms and babies we test and treat HIV and STD clinics while educating populations on how to avoid risky behaviors we make sure that private sewage is properly handled that indoor air quality is safe and that lead paint is found abated and that the children that are affected by it are found and treated we're among the first in line when there's a natural disaster or one that is man-made we're also right now working with a mumps outbreak in champaign at U of I so those are some of the things that we do on july 28th we surveyed our local health departments around the state to find out their financial condition and what we found was disturbing and i think that's in your packet right now one of the things i wanted to discuss with you as eastside health district in east st. louis has laid off sixty-five percent of their staff and they serve a population of 65,000 franklin williamson r by county health department in deep southern illinois as laid off 17 % of their staff Effingham County is now going to a shortened work week with reduced hours cumberland county health department is now going to a four-day work week every Friday I PHA is committing all of our local health department's from around the state to catalogue our diminished capacity due to the budget impasse what we're asking for is that the leaders in the General Assembly and the governor come together to bring this to a close but I will have to say this and I've said this before in budget negotiations even if a budget were passed today there's not enough funding to run a statewide system for public health so we're also asking the leaders of the General Assembly and the governor to take a look at how we fund public health in Illinois we think it's vitally important that this system be maintained and Senator stains I would just want to say that you've been a remarkable friend to public health in Illinois I want to thank you for that best of luck thank you my name is al Ridley I am a board member for the Illinois partners for Human Service retired executive director of the Illinois Coalition for Community Services thanks to Kathy for organizing this and to Senator stains for making his for impossible the Illinois partners for Human Service represents 850 members who are actively participating as human service groups across the state from Wisconsin line down to the most southern point of the state in additional is 850 there are probably another five to six hundred who participate allow us to advocate for them even though they are not paying members they participate in our phone calls during the paps past few months in fact the past few years we have devalued the Human Services area by accepting the erosion of vital services not only to these groups but in terms of how it's the most vulnerable in fact I would best describe this as a Death March this is where cap people are held captive and marched slowly to their point of death now I'm not trying to be mental dramatic here I'm just simply observing the agencies across the state that I'm familiar with which is a multiple group of how they are attempting to survive and very close to death the thing about that is that is intensified because that focused downward spiral and the erosion of those services impact the most vulnerable in fact the current activity that we see or the current inactivity is multiplied which in which impacts many of these folks who are dependent upon or who live through Human Services the complicating factor is that Human Services is an underpinning it is foundational for jobs for after-school programs for education it is like what holds a mobile home down or what holds a house down and without these human services than what we find is an erosion in many areas of a family life it is not only disgusting of the current affair and current conditions that we find ourselves but it is very frustrating perhaps it's time to change the our state model from Land of Lincoln to we don't care but still just three words it kind of kind of fits in with it on the license plate wouldn't it and so whether we actually really believe that should happen or not you'll you're known by your actions and those actions are consequential and when there are held in terms of accountability in terms of not only legislatively but executive wise we've come to understand that our current status in human services at least with the Illinois Department of Human Services is is bleak and the continuation of many of the group's as I referred to earlier is highly questionable but as multiplied in terms of those services that will not be rendered to whether it's children youth seniors those who are developmentally disabled or whomever would fall under that kind of terrible umbrella so we at the Illinois part of human services continue to attempt to advocate and encourage in a very difficult time of bleakness in terms of where we actually are thank you good morning my name is melvin jordan and i'm here representing iccs Illinois Coalition and community services first let me begin by saying it is essential that the Illinois community coalition of community services line item be included and kept in fy16 budget just to the east of us our neighborhoods feel with poverty and uncertainty a community within a community that is too often forgotten i'm here today to speak about the poverty that has been imprinted upon my mind and heart and how the Illinois Coalition of Community Services has implemented essential services that positively impact youth and families across Illinois not only am I a board member at the iccs but I also run a summer food program this is our third year and I want to thank my pastor for allowing us to run this program in that church I had no clue I work for the Illinois State Board of Education for 34 years and I had no clue the numbers that I was tracking of poverty kids of kids who don't have nothing to eat after school this out when school's over some our children don't have food to eat a hot nourish meal some simple but it means a lot when you took them talking about a kid children are children I'm not just talking about black children we have white children too we have got to take care of our kids we can't expect someone else this is the great state of Illinois we're not Wisconsin we're not Indiana we're not followers we're leaders thank good morning I'm Dave Roth and I'm a staff member Lutheran child and family services of Illinois and I have with me Julie mavic who is a case manager in the lcfs veterans program in decatur illinois and i also want to express my gratitude to Senator stains lcfs has programs across the state we serve about 40,000 folks a year we serve in north central and southern Illinois we have 27 offices and about 450 employees one of those office is it in the Chicago Uptown neighborhood at Chicago uptown ministry where we have five staff members and I want to applaud senator stains for being very out there in the community to be assessing what's going on and I appreciate that that results in great advocacy here in Springfield so lcfs is a statewide organization and with those 40,000 folks we serve here we enter into a relationship where we learn what's going on in the lives of our clients and so we've had the chance to listen to them talk about what's the impact of the current budget impasse on them and there are a couple of things that we want to highlight for you today one of those is the impact on veterans who are in permanent supportive housing in decatur where Julie works lcfs provides a case management service to those veterans and the budget impasse has meant that the department of human services in its uncertainty has issued a contract to LCFS for that service at half the amount of last year's contract that means we must reduce the benefits and the services that we can provide through that contract and one of the essential ones that has been reduced is transportation Julie works with veterans who need to get to health care appointments dental appointments substance abuse treatment job search activities social activities senior activities you name it and so we're working feverishly with those folks to find alternative subsidies some of them who are capable or walking more but all too many of them are simply not getting the help they need because there's not a transportation benefit available to them so that's an immediate harm that has come already now I want to talk about kind of the horizon which has very dark clouds for us we are a child welfare service provider in Illinois and we have at any given time about 1,200 children in substitute care foster care residential treatment emergency shelter and it is those children that we work with to build a child and family team that is a foster parent a birth parent a potential adoptive parent to make a plan for that child safe permanent future those folks who are involved in that planning or telling us that they're very worried about the uncertainty they rely on the services that you've already heard about the teen reach service that was spoken of day care day care subsidies they rely on mental health services and the uncertainty around the impasse and the recently released report from the united way that says the wave is going to hit at the end of this month and in September that's when those services are expected to go away what that does with that child and family team is freeze them their their ability to move forward with finding the safe and permanent home for that child slows and that gives us anxiety at LCFS because the one thing we know about successful child welfare practice is it must be swift the longer a child is in substitute care the more damage that can be done and you might think what's three to four months what difference will that make well in a child sense of time if you're three or four years old that's all it takes to destroy your ability to trust for a long period of time we don't want to make their lives more difficult so we're urging everyone who has a hand of voice any kind of influence in the budgeting process to work toward a solution that brings adequate revenue funds the essential services gives us a chance to restore the benefits in our veterans program indicator as well as to give assurance to the families who are involved in the child welfare system that they'll get the enduring support that they need thanks good morning my name is Vicki Smith I'm the executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence I too want to thank Kathy for pulling us together this morning here in Springfield and I want to thank heather stains for her ongoing efforts to try to figure out some solutions for our budget my organization represents roughly 50 programs across the state of Illinois that do direct services to victims of domestic violence and their children we provide services to over 40,000 adults and over 8,000 children every year 24 hours a day seven days a week what is happening now is that that 24-hour service is beginning to collapse we have one agency in southern Illinois that serves four counties that close their doors Friday the only thing that they're going to be able to do is they've transferred their hotline to Chicago and they will answer extreme emergency calls we have another agency in southern South Eastern Illinois that will close its beds as of the end of this month if the budget isn't resolved that agency covers nine southeastern counties and provide services to homeless homeless prevention domestic violence victims and elder services in that entire area so with the with the reduction of those you can see the impact across the spectrum of what's going to happen to many of these agencies i also want to talk about the fact that in the last decade Human Services in particular has reduced by about thirty percent in our state budget when Kathy talks about only eighteen percent of the budget that's where the hits always come from that's where the cuts always come from all the time I hear about we've got to make cuts we've got to make cuts well the Human Services field has made cuts for the last decade and we're really beginning to collapse now and as Kathy talked about earlier if we really lose these programs they will not be able to be replaced they do multiple services to hundreds of thousands of people in this state every year and it's not just one person using one server it's a family using multiple kinds of services across the life spectrum so it's really critical that all of our leaders sit down together and talk about real solutions so that going forward we not only resolve the problem this year but we have to resolve the problem going forward we have we've been dealing with this for over a decade and have not come to the table with real solutions for how to help our families in Illinois so I think you know I can only echo what my my colleagues have said coming in we need adequate revenue we need adequate spending and we need a complete package put together to help the families in Illinois who need all of these services thank you good morning my name is Jim Runyan I'm executive vice president at Easter Seals central Illinois and I have the honor and privilege of being the chairman of the board of Illinois partners for Human Service al has already spoken very eloquently about our statewide coalition so I won't address our statewide efforts but i do want to focus on very specific programming at the community level for us in Peoria Easter Seals serves about 28 counties across the center of this state and we serve 7600 families each year not all of our programs are at risk with this current budget impasse but some of them are at great risk and I want to talk specifically about our programming for children with autism Russ is soon going to speak about the autism program we are part of that Network and we are the largest provider downstate of all autism services since july one we've been operating without a contract and without payment or even a promise of payment at this point and we continue to patch together different types of public as well as private funds to be able to continue to provide those services but that cannot be done be done indefinitely at some point probably in September we will have to lay off those highly trained professionals and we will have to suspend services for many phase Emily's especially those surf through Medicaid the other major impact for us is we are one of the fiscal agents for a state contract for early intervention across the state there are 25 early intervention offices across the state I'm the fiscal agent for two of those that serve 11 counties again in the center part of the state I have 39 employees we serve 1600 families at any given time and given the current impasse there is we have a contract I wouldn't I wouldn't go to bank with the number of dollars that are been placed inside buying contract but and a promise be paid back to july one but no idea of when we will see that first payment so for organizations like mine inside early intervention and many other programs we're operating as others have said on our cash reserves we're operating on lines of credit but again that cannot go on indefinitely we will reach a point likely for some right now for others August later in August Labor Day october one and what you're going to see is this trickle become a stream become a flood as program after program is closed or suspended or access restricted and more and more of our employees be laid off or terminated now i want to talk just real briefly about that and then i'll close for many of us our employees are highly trained and very dedicated folks so when we have to lay them off or we have to terminate them to try to restart those programs when they have moved on either out of state or inside state and found other jobs is incredibly difficult for my earlier intervention program if i have to terminate those employees and they leave it takes me an additional six months to retrain andrey credential those folks so we can't stop and start on a dime this is much more like a freight train and so we're and we all see where this freight train is headed so I especially asked you my friends in the media to to be of help with us in sharing these stories because my my fear is that until most folks in most communities feel the pain of this it is going to continue to be in large part ignored and until it's too late and then once these programs have have closed suspended employees have moved on then then I my fear is folks will begin to notice and it will be too late so thank you thank you Cathy for today under stains for but for your assistance thanks good morning my name is Russell Bonanno I'm the state director for the autism program of Illinois and as others have done I would like to thank Kathy and Senators gains for their support for setting this up this morning I also want to thank members in both houses for the ongoing support that they've been providing to the autism program throughout its history we're in a unique situation the autism program is a collaboration of four public university programs and 13 nonprofit agencies across the state we operate 19 centers specializing in resources direct services and training related to autism our funding has been decreasing over the years while the number of children with autism has been increasing in 2008 the CDC said that 1 in 88 children was diagnosed with autism in Illinois that meant a little under 23,000 school-aged children and our allocation then was four point eight seven million dollars in fiscal year 14 the cdc reported that now 1 in 68 children had a diagnosis of autism autism is more prevalent than childhood cancer and pediatric diabetes combined however in spite of that ninety-six percent increase in the prevalence of autism and children our budget decreased from what it was earlier not because of anyone's fault but because of the state of finances with in Illinois in spite of this we've been able to continue to serve children and families people here that most of what we do can be covered through insurance and Medicaid it's simply not true Medicaid does not provide for autism services many of the services of which we provide applied behavioral analysis is the most proven intervention for children with autism Medicaid does not pay for that many private insurances that are either self under ERISA plans do not pay for that we provide that service at a decreased cost for those familie who could not otherwise afford it in addition in many parts of the state we are the only providers of autism services without tap setters there will be no services for children with autism in many parts of the state we provide training to teachers we help teachers and local school districts keep children with autism at home in their school districts rather than needing to send them to day programs or residential programs significantly higher costs that training is not covered by any insurance it's not covered by any other state program and we don't charge the local districts in order to do it we've served over 5,000 families teachers and others through our resource rooms the only funding for those resource room comes from the state 2,800 teachers parents and other professionals have received autism specific consultations to allow them to better serve children that is not paid for in any other way eighty 690 teachers first responders eip tional of medical and behavioral health providers have all received training without cost due to the funding that we have available through the state this will all stop in addition we do provide a significant return on investment to the state of Illinois we have brought in over thirty four million dollars in federal and private foundation funding for use within the state as a result of programs funded by tap as a result of the Foundation's established by our tab centers the is virtually a one hundred percent return on investment for the money that the state has invested in our program the budget impasse is already impacting our citizens our clients and our staff tap at CTF Illinois which serves a significant number of counties in the eastern part of the state closed on July first laid off a hundred percent of its staff Easter Seals Chicago and Easter Seals rockford laid off fifty percent of their staff those centers in addition to direct services trained pediatric residents in dealing with autism and recognizing autism the impact is today the impact is tomorrow and the impact will go on for years the budget needs to be passed there needs to be adequate funding for all of Human Services and most especially for autism services thank you good morning my name is John Mark Lee and I'm CEO of center stone of Illinois center stone is located in southern Illinois we have offices in alton and carterville illinois we serve about 17,000 people with mental illness substance abuse issues and intellectual disabilities I was taught I was asked to talk about the impact of the budget and there's there's a lot going on in my head and as I listen to what's common among us is the people that we're here to talk about our people that can't talk for themselves it's a very vulnerable group whatever array or whatever types of services were offering were the only people right now speaking for them and that that really is concerning and it's it's become very personal because when you when you watch this happen every day that this is what's not seen in the media print this is what's not seen in the press ops what's happening here is is we're seeing people coming to us for instance for psychiatric services that were not funded and that's the number one reason people come to us as co-ceo psychiatrist is what they'll tell you and we didn't get funding for that at least that's not been approved in the budget yet but that's the number one reason people come to us for so for them to get counseling and other types of services along out of that it's it's very difficult if that funding is not there so what we have done as an agency is we're continuing and hiring and keeping our psychiatrists in place we have a cross center stone right now we have about eight psychiatrist that we're using if we were to lose a psychiatrist it is very very difficult for us to recruit psychiatrists in southern Illinois and I suspect that that's true all around Illinois but what we're seeing is is if we were done if we were now to dismantle that service it would take years to rebuild literally and so we have those issues and with regard to the services that we're offering to these people that come to us we also have issues with regards we have a crisis center we had a 24-7 crisis center where people that were going into the emergency room sitting for days sitting for hours whatever amount of time and now they can come to our crisis center somebody meets them at the door peer support specialist says hello I've been there let's talk about your problem I've been there done that you know and they want people through these things it's been showing to feel great outcomes for these people instead of sitting in an emergency room where they're not getting any help at all we have had to cut those officer home 24 7 to about eight hours a day those services also help people that are coming out of the hospitals that reintegrate back into the community and we're seeing that we don't have opportunity to do that either and now as we look at these things and we talk about the impact on the people it just seems that we're standing before the pulpit we're standing before the cameras and we're talking about these things and nobody hears and people seem and if you will forgive me people seem to be governing for special interest groups and not the people of Illinois people seem to be governing for their position and not the people of Illinois people seem to be governing for their politics and not the people of Illinois and I can't say strong enough if even it was your your family member I wish that you could know the pain that we see and and frankly the blood that was going to be on the sidewalks should this go on another month it is going to be as people talked about a wave this is not a you know a we didn't stand and get together and say just tell them the worst so that so they can get the real good feel for this you're going to see it happening you're going to see it in your backyards you're going to see in your communities and so what I think is really important here is that we don't forget the individuals that these people are serving that we're serving that we don't forget the families that we're serving that we don't forget the communities that we're serving because this has to come back to the people of Illinois because that's who's going to see them the biggest impact and have any have the biggest effect on this thank you very much ours yes good morning my name is Polly pasta and I'm the executive director of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault it's a statewide Association of 28 community-based rape crisis centers in Illinois who provide 24-hour services seven days a week 365 days a year to sexual assault victims I want to thank you Cathy for organizing us today and Senator stains for your historical support of Human Services in this state I'd like to begin to by saying that my 92 year old uncle lives in the farmhouse that he was born in on the family farm that continues to be farmed by his sons and I get it about agriculture in the state of Illinois I appreciate the agribusiness and the agricultural infrastructure that is the number one industry in this state an industry that depends on a state fair in Springfield in a decline to be the trumpet of that industry just like everybody you've heard from today are the trumpets for the industries that are happening at the local level that provides supportive services supportive services that are not unlike that government provides whether it be to agriculture our number one industry in the state or to the needs of vulnerable people who should be our number one concern as a government so I know in the rape crisis work around the state last year and fy15 I can tell you we saw 8900 eight victims in person 1021 significant others of those victims and we had nine thousand 593 anonymous contacts on the hotline and these folks provided about 100 and 1000 hours of service now these are individuals that we contracted with the state of Illinois and I do want to remind folks we took a two point two five percent cut the last quarter of FY 15 and more destined to take a two point two five percent cut coming into FY 16 and perhaps we can take a two point two five percent cut and do one for the team if that helps the state of Illinois but we can't be zeroed out because if we're zeroed out there is nobody to accompany a rape victim you know who's a victim of a crime perpetrated against the state of Illinois who is a witness to the criminal justice system hopefully in the solving of that crime that hopefully reduces the recidivism that hopefully brings some justice to the victim and to the safety of our communities we cannot be zeroed out I did a quick survey as Kathy said we pulled ourselves together here as quickly as we could and we did a survey asking what does this you know potential zeroing out me and rape crisis were quelled our folks in vandalia said all part-time folks would be reduced that'd be one counselor one educator one advocate would be moved to part-time two counselors would be completely laid off not a good thing the folks in Urbana said I believe we would have to lay off our part-time employee reduce hours of at least two out of our seven staff members the folks over in Decatur said to FTE layoffs folks over in Quincy said well it depends on how long the delay should occur my best guess would be three to four staff members would be laid off from the sexual assault program way down south well we're okay for the next three months because why we're going to use our reserves so this is a 501 c 3 not-for-profit who has to have some kind of line of credit at a bank not an easy thing I can tell you to access and they will use that for the next three months but if the budget stalemate goes longer than three months then our board will have to meet we can't afford to do this we've contracted with the state we've said to rape victims and our communities that these services are here to support you we can't turn your lives around all by ourselves but we can with all the supportive services that come into play when a rape victim reports a rape and that would be the hospitals that be the criminal justice system our law enforcement or prosecution many and not any of those all of those nobody is asking police to do project cuts nobody's asking prosecutors offices to do plea to do cuts but you had a rape victim is a witness to the crime that those entities can't operate and solve the crimes and promote the safety of the community without the participation of that witness so it's our responsibility I feel in many ways to help that victim continue to be a part of solving the crimes and contributing to the safety of the community and we feel it's our responsibility to them that they get the recovery in the assistance that they can possibly muster from being in a rape crisis center so they can go on to be viable members and participating taxpayers in the state of Illinois thank you very much good morning my name is Gary Suggs and I serve on the board of the Illinois State Museum the governor has proposed to close the only state museum we believe the governor has received bad advice in this regard and respectfully urge him to reconsider that decision the museum was founded in 1877 it has mandates for research of the state's natural and cultural resources development and care of collections of scientific historic and artistic value and public education about the cultural and natural history and resources of Illinois it operates six facilities throughout illinois springfield two locations lewiston Chicago Lockport Whittington you're in Lake is accredited by the American alliance of museums a testimony to its excellent program and practices State Museum system engages people in the discovery of the land life people and art of Illinois from a long-term and statewide perspective is the only institution in the state to do that in 2014 more than three hundred eighty-six thousand individuals including 40,000 students and 2300 teachers were served by the is em both on and off site and the museum system had a million five hundred thousand virtual visitors the visitors of the is M facilities and attendees at off-site museum programs and events spend about 33 to 36 million dollars in Illinois communities each year based on Illinois Office of Tourism estimates of visitor spending also the is M sponsors the ulnar artisans program which provides an outlet for Illinois artisans to sell their products through is M shops during 2014 the State Museum employed some 85 people in Illinois communities finally through the Illinois State Museum Society a 501 c 3 not-for-profit corporation the museum brought in approximately two million dollars in additional grants and contracts many from federal agencies museum has a budget around 6.3 million dollars for this fiscal of the year if the system is closed the governor recognizes the necessity to care for collections and the estimate is that this process will reduce the savings to around 4.8 million dollars but again that's for the fiscal year in addition the aforementioned visitors dollars will be lost including sales tax on the 33 to 36 million dollar visitor spending and sales tax on artisan sales museum cares for some 13 and a half million artworks artifacts and Natural History specimens that provide tangible evidence for the cultural and natural heritage of Illinois and has shared through exhibitions and programs many of these items are covered under agreements between the museum and donors some federal agencies some Native American tribes some individuals Museum closure couldn't very well trigger lawsuits and penalties against the state of Illinois for violating those agreements which would incur legal costs and bad publicity for the state of Illinois in a recent editorial the state journal-register editors common throughout much of the Springfield history and now 130 year-old Illinois State Museum has offered steady reassurance that while people and politicians come and go from the capital city the state's natural and cultural history are worthy of preservation study and protection unquote yes sir further states and I quote preserving the Illinois history and sharing it with the people of this state has been a priority of Illinois legislators and leaders for generations the museum's value is immeasurable for 138 years illinois state militant has a priority for the state through Wars economic downturns and tough times it's if leaders choose to close the museum although I will invalidate decades a valuable and meaningful research and preservation work as well as people's interest in the state's history in culture and Illinois will be a failure and yet another front thank you thank you I'm Andrea Durbin I'm the chief executive officer of the Illinois collaboration on youth and also your last speaker this morning I want to thank Kathy and sender stains and all my colleagues for coming here today and I want to share with you I won't go into a lot of detail about the programs we specifically care about because you've heard about them teen reach child care juvenile justice programs child welfare programs program serving homeless youth what I want to say instead is that the issues that affect families and communities affect children and youth and the things that make our state help work are healthy people working I want to underestimate that or underline that healthy people working that's the foundation of our economy in Illinois and Human Services makes that possible for so many for thousands of people you've heard that today right what is the path to healthy people working it's education it's health care it's job security it's physical safety and safety of our communities and that's what my colleagues are here to tell you about today and that's how all this is connected right when a couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting a young woman she's just turned 20 she's a child what a ward of the state growing up a young woman she's going to be emancipated if all goes well and at her 21st birthday and normally we'd say to her this is your last chance for the state is apparent to you for you to take advantage of what we can offer you we can offer you support for your education help you get housing but she is so worried about her future she is so afraid that she might be homeless tomorrow that she's foregone her education in favor of a low paying retail job this decision while it makes sense it's rational sense in the moment it doesn't make sense for her in the long term in the future she will forego thousands of dollars of her earnings because she did not pursue her education at a time when she could have it will cost her personally will cost the state this young woman is replicated in hundreds of thousands of agencies across Illinois and she is an example of kind of what we're doing as a state here we're cutting off our nose to spite our face right what you heard today people described it as a wave well I'm here to tell you it's actually a tsunami that's coming it's a tsunami that's coming the end of this month the beginning of September and we've tried to put little sandbags around different services right with lines of credit with cash reserves maybe a federal lawsuit here a potential bill that sound understands I hope passes to get some federal dollars funding later those things are sandbags around the tsunami you can't survive a tsunami and if our human services are wiped out Illinois well it will take months and years to recover from it I want to make sure that you have an opportunity to ask some questions so I'll invite my colleagues from the hallway to come back in thank you all very much for your time just does anyone have a specific questions they'd like to ask of certain individuals team because we'll get a statement from the governor's office after this it will talk about speaker Madigan and the lawmakers he controls have to agree to our turnaround agenda and so that's what we're doing yet what do you think you know that that's what my point was is we sit here and you'll print it and even you know print it in bold print it night Alex do whatever you have to do I mean but it has to stop being a monotone background noise to them and being something that really they see what's happening we offer we offer life and deaf services people are in the emergency rooms we were serving and at some point we're going to have to say sorry can't get there tonight we just don't have the resources we just don't have it so what I mean blood on the sidewalks is is people are going to be laying bleeding and you we just have to step over them now you know just to the get to the people we that we can help the most right now and that is that's what the issue is this is I'm not making this up and I wish I could say that you know i was making up we have about six months or a year we hope they settle it by then but it they're kidding themselves when i say they're the our government our government is kidding themselves when they don't understand that this is affecting life and death and the people in the communities it really is i want to emphasize the fact that budget development for government is policy development the continued repeating of statements in the press is politics we're talking about policy development we're talking about people's lives day in and day out we need policy development we don't need the same political statements over and over and over and I think there's a lot of people in government that are willing to sit down and really have true conversations about this before we get to the point where we have to stop when this gel talked about the communities our communities are going to have to pick up our little tiny communities all over the state are going to have to pick up all the droppings of this continued repeated rhetoric that isn't helping we need policy development we need real budget decisions made well as you mentioned historically that's been the one of the first areas that's been cut because of the amount of money that's there so what's happened is and this I think is accentuated right now the cause of the of the deletions through the years and trying to keep some kind of coverage of service then when this happens then it just it just it just intensifies the so human service has been an easy place to go to frankly it shouldn't have been but it has been because you look at some of the small nonprofits which I know most about they will try to operate with five people when they've operated with 15 just because they want to keep a presence you know in communities even though the reduced number of communities so it's become a way of life has become acceptable and now it's become damnable actually so that's kind of well I think it's interesting you should mention scuzz legislators have been saying this to some human service people well you know you guys are too easy you bet you've been pushed around and not you know it's like you know we're getting our you know we're kind of getting riled here you know in this because of not only a pride issue but also the issue will we just can't deliver what we say we're going to it our mission statements so I think it has been somewhat of an easy not kill I don't like that word but an easy movement to say okay well you know we'll still have some network you know we had this rumored long before governor runner was elected was that you know there would be movement toward website development so that services could be provided by just a person asking a question and still a person being in a community receiving a need because you could operate a website at one-tenth or 100 the amount of a contract to a non-profit so to me this just seems to be incrementally happening at this point so with regard to your question the reason that I think they go after human service agencies and the type of people that we serve is the stigma related to those services that these people need to have pull themselves up by the bootstraps fix it they don't respect the illness when that when the illness seems to be from her hair up it does gets no respect they don't respect the people that provide the services and so they think they can wipe a number off a page and it not have any impact in your community when really when you eliminate services like that it 5 10 7 times the more it costs and the other services like the juvenile justice system that the jail's in the hospitals and all of those sort of things i believe it's related to the stigma i want to say too i believe it's a it's a significant unnecessary provision in a 501 C 3 award from the federal government that we do not support campaigns we can't deliver ten cents to a campaign as a not-for-profit and we shouldn't that that should be sort of if you will kind of the reward of receiving state and federal funding asking for an exemption from the federal government of paying taxes because make no mistake about it many of the people in this room are collectively with maybe some of the folks aren't in this room as you might know where were set to receive 300 million dollars right and maybe more from the state government and the fan more from the federal government to provide the kind of services and support that we do in our communities for that I don't pay property taxes in the building that we run the services out of right we I don't pay sales taxes when I go to purchase desks or chairs or supplies or anything so it's it's a trade-off we get with the federal government and it's a necessary one and important one I would never want to see that change that said my 15 million dollar industry can't support a campaign and i think it's it's a player i think that's a player so I applaud the efforts to try to take you know pay to play we aren't subject to that because we can't do that were forbidden from that I like that but I do wonder sometimes if that sort of makes us sort of the last group you know to be considered we all come over to the capital and we probably bother the center there stains as of the world far more than they wish by talking to them we do that a lot on unrestricted money we have to we have to we can known we can't use even the salary we receive from state and federal government to come over here to access our public officials we have to use unrestricted money to do that and I think we should that said we also can't influence in a particular way that we know politics are influenced in this state and the other for the united states so i think it's a it's a factor I like it that somebody says let's stay out of the politics of it all let's stay in the policy of it all that's what I think we need to do as social services i do think it gives us a little bit of a disadvantage when it comes to to influencing some of the outcomes public health is not generally sexy either if i'm going to go into a senator's office and i'm going to talk about water wells it's probably not going to be a big priority especially to if the county health department is competing with with the County Sheriff you know where that ends up it's a low man on the totem pole we also deal with some controversial issues nobody wants to talk about your teens coming in with an STD or you don't want to talk about sex education in the schools from the public health department so there is some stigma regarding that too and so when you go to do budget cuts and you look at what the local health departments have to compete with at the county level and then at the state level I think it's a there's a lot of lack of love let me put it that way when it comes to the issues that we have to deal with are there any more questions thank you very much for enduring think thank you everybody for coming