Illinois’s bill backlog climbed to $11 billion.State payments to K-12 schools for transportation, special education and free and reduced-price lunches were delayed by months, causing a ripple effect for staff and families in districts across the state.More than $1.1 billion was cut from higher education funding for state universities and community colleges-a more than 70 percent reduction in state support.55,000 fewer children of low-income working parents were able to take advantage of the state’s Child Care Assistance Program because Rauner slashed funding for the program.Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, the state’s largest social service provider, announced mass program closures and layoffs because of the stalemate.As is recounted on the website of State Senator Daniel Biss (D-Evanston), the cumulative impact of the standoff has mounted, month by month:
Less visible than the political infighting is the harm being done by the standoff to the lives of Illinois citizens and to the nonprofit infrastructure that was formed to provide much the State’s social service programs. Because of court orders and agreements to fund K-12 education and some level of social services, the entire state has not shut down. The feud between Rauner and the Democratic majorities of both houses of the state legislature gives the state the unique status of attempting to govern without a state budget, to the delight of headline writers and columnists.Īs NPQ has previously reported, the budget impasse pits a governor who sees the long-term financial problems of the state as the result of a weak business environment, over-regulatory government, and too-powerful labor unions against a legislative leadership that sees the issue as one of too little revenue, particularly from corporations and wealthy individuals alongside a need for modest programmatic reform. FebruNBC Chicago, “Ward Room”īeginning the second year of Republican Governor Bruce Rauner’s first term, Illinois remains without a budget.
0 kommentar(er)
