On April 13, the General Assembly sent a fiscal year 2016 budget bill, Senate Bill 2046, to Governor Rauner. Governor Rauner is expected to veto the bill, but we feel we have a responsibility to ask him not to in order to provide desperately needed funding for human services, higher education and other important community services.
Putting a FY16 budget into place will also allow Governor Rauner and members of the General Assembly to put their full focus on developing the revenue solutions Illinois also needs to fund the state budget for this and future years.
Click here to send a message to Governor Rauner about the importance of ending the state budget impasse and identifying revenue solutions rather than continuing to hurt people who rely on state funding.
The state budget impasse, now in its tenth month, is adding to the already existing hardship of people who are experiencing homelessness and need affordable housing. The service providers attempting to assist these people have had to reduce or eliminate services and layoff staff. Some have even totally closed their doors. Directly and indirectly all of this will cost the people of the State of Illinois more money in the long run as people don’t get the assistance they need and remain stuck in crisis situations.
Examples of the impact of Illinois going 10 months without a state budget include:
- Elimination and denial of shelter to families, single adults and unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness.
- Reductions in the services people who were formerly homeless need to maintain themselves in permanent supportive housing.
- No state funding to prevent people from becoming homeless.
- Delays and stoppages in the creation of new affordable rental housing units.
- Money owed to nonprofit agencies that have already paid contractors to rehab previously vacant single-family homes.
- Delays in people attempting to move from high cost state funded institutions into more cost effective community-based housing.
- No funding to assist homeowners in need of housing counseling to avoid foreclosure.
The budget bill the General Assembly sent to Governor Rauner is less than ideal because it includes cuts compared to fiscal year 2015 and does not include anywhere near the level of funding required to meet the needs of every person experiencing homelessness and in need of affordable housing after many years of prior budget cuts and inadequate funding. However, the cuts in the General Assembly’s budget are significantly smaller than those that have proposed by Governor Rauner.
Governor Rauner and members of the General Assembly need to put non-budget and partisan political issues aside and pass a FY16 budget with adequate revenue. Passing a spending bill would be a good first step with the next step being to pass legislation increasing revenue.
Click here to send a message to Governor Rauner.