Illinois House Floor Debate — October 1, 2007

"Let us pray. Most gracious and most sovereign God, the author and the finisher of our faith, the giver and the sustainer of our lives, we offer You this day, blessings. As we pray for Your blessings upon this august Body, upon the Leader of this House and upon everyone of the Members in which You have chosen to serve here. It is this day that we lean not toward our own understanding but we acknowledge You and we ask You to direct our paths. So I pray that You would grant them wisdom, I pray that You would grant them guidance and direction throughout this day, we pray. Amen."

John Lowder: "Thank you, Chairman Hannig and Ladies and Gentlemen of the House. This presentation was originally meant to be a PowerPoint presentation but due to technical difficulties that was not possible. So you all should receive or have on your desk a copy of the slides that would have been in the PowerPoint presentation, and throughout I will try to reference which page and slid you're supposed to be on. Hopefully we won't get to lost. Drafting a state budget is a delicate matter. The end result is only achieved after much negotiation and compromise. An agreed budget is one that has achieved balance and harmony. Each piece comes together to do the greatest possible good for the greatest number of people. On August 10, 2007, after months of negotiations, the four legislative caucuses agreed to a twelve-month state budget. The budget passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan support, 52 to 5 in the Senate and 98 to 8 in the House. For all practical purposes, an agreed budget, 09500152c.doc 5  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 the pieces fit. In education the need for balance is most critical. This budget balanced increased general state aid for cash starved urban and downstate schools against increased mandated categorical funding and fast growth grants for the rapidly expanding suburban schools. Special needs such as increased special education reimbursements, teacher incentive grants, and after-school programs were balanced by funding to reimburse all schools in the state for the ever increasing costs of state mandates. In health and human services, increased funding for nursing homes were balanced against rate increases for our community- based human service providers. Increases in hospital appropriations balanced out expansions in community and school based health centers. In higher education, colleges and universities were finally given a reasonable increase after years of neglect and underfunding. Public safety funding for new correctional guards, anticrime programs and public health protections balanced out general government funding for cultural programs, state parks, and agricultural enhancements. And finally, all these statewide programs were balanced out by a small amount of funding for local projects; projects in need of some dire financial assistance. This budget did not fund everything that everybody wanted. This budget did not meet every need or demand. This budget did the best that could be done with the limited resources available. The legislature, through negotiation, compromise, and concession was able to achieve an agreed budget. A budget delicately constructed 09500152c.doc 6  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 to achieve balance, harmony, and nearly unanimous support. But almost immediately the Governor announced that he would cut five hundred million (500,000,000) from the budget in order to fund his health care proposal, a health care proposal, which failed to advance out of either legislative chamber. On August 23, 2007, the Governor, through line item and reduction Vetoes, extracted four hundred and seventy million (470,000,000) from the legislative budget and upset the balance and harmony on which it was constructed. In defense of his cuts, the Governor referred to his… to this spending as 'pork projects', 'special pet projects', and 'special interest spending' which has little to do with the corps mission of state government'. Well, let's take a look at some of that unnecessary spending. First, health care: The Governor claims his cuts to the FY'08 budget are to ensure he can pay for a statewide health care program. However, according to an analysis by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, nearly 30 percent of the Governor's reductions were to health care. These reductions included a five hundred thousand dollar ($500,000) grant to Rush Presbyterian Hospital for Alzheimer research. The complete elimination of chiropractic services through the Medicaid program. Even though, chiropractors provide better care for less cost when compared to care provided by hospital emergency room staff. Forty million dollars ($40,000,000) was cut to hospital services through the Medicaid program, jeopardizing coverage for over thirty thousand (30,000) 09500152c.doc 7  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 children in the All Kids program or over sixteen thousand (16,000) parents in the Family Care program. A fifty million dollar ($50,000,000) reduction to long-term care despite the fact that the baby boomer generation has begun to reach retirement age and the cost of providing services to the elderly has grown significantly. Three million (3,000,000) was eliminated for twenty-one (21) new school based health centers which provides front-line health care to many of our un and underinsured. Without this funding these centers will be unable to open. Despite a waiting list of over eight hundred (800), 2.2 million (2,200,000) was eliminated for the LaSalle Veterans Home, which would have provided care for eighty (80) veterans. Over 1.6 million (1,600,000) was cut from a program, which would provide increase care and testing for newborns. Seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,000) cut from HIV/AIDS, education, medicine, and prevention. Four hundred thousand (400,000) eliminated for sickle cell anemia research. And at a time when the state is facing a critical shortage of health care professionals, the Governor cut five hundred thousand (500,000) for nursing school grants, and seven hundred thousand (700,000) to provide medical education to people living in rural areas. Mental health service providers care for the mentally ill who have no means to care for themselves. The state has recently moved away from a flat grant method of payment to a new method, which is based on paying a fee per service rendered. While this new payment method provides greater accountability for the 09500152c.doc 8  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 use of state funds, it has made some mental health service providers unviable businesses and in danger of closing. The General Assembly recognized this, so to prevent them from closing, eight million (8,000,000) was included in the FY'08 budget. This money is commonly referred to as the 'safety net' because it will save the most vulnerable facilities. The Governor vetoed the entire eight million dollar ($8,000,000) 'safety net'. This puts a real possibility that some of these providers may close. The diagnosis of autism has increased by 172 percent in the 1990's and it occurs in one out of every one hundred and fifty (150) births. The General Assembly included ten million (10,000,000) in the FY'08 budget to address this growing crisis. This funding would've created the largest system of autism care in the country, but the Governor vetoed half of the appropriation. Over the past few years, community-based developmental disability and substance abuse service providers have been faced with the rising costs of gasoline and electricity, the costs of providing care and health insurance premiums. They have also been hit recently with the increase to the minimum wage. Despite these constantly rising costs, the state has not provided them with an increase in more than two (2) years. To help with these costs, the General Assembly provided a modest cost of doing business increase; however, the Governor has vetoed that increase. Higher education: although K through 12 education is important as a foundation, it is higher education which is the key to 09500152c.doc 9  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 achieving personal success. This chart on the bottom of page six (6) demonstrates the importance of a post- secondary education in today's world. As you can see as the level of education increases, the average income level increases as well. A high school graduate makes on average thirty-one thousand dollars ($31,000) a year, the average level of income nearly doubles for a person with a bachelor's degree. But in spite of this, higher education has been all but ignored in recent years. As you can see on the chart at the top of page seven (7), appropriations to K through 12 education have steadily increased by more than two billion (2,000,000,000) since the Governor's taken office; however, funding for the states higher education system has decreased by two hundred million (200,000,000). As a result, the average tuition and fees at state universities have more than doubled during the Blagojevich administration. Without state support the burden falls to the students and to their families. Another of the Governor's Vetoes eliminated nine and a half million in state matching grants to institutions of higher education. But the impact of this cut is far more severe than the nine and a half million (9,500,000). These grants enable the state to liver… leverage an additional one hundred and twelve million (112,000,000) in federal funds for various public and private universities. So this cut will reduce investment in our universities by over one hundred and twenty million ($120,000,000) dollars. By design our community college system is to be funded equally from three 09500152c.doc 10  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 separate sources: from the state, from tuition and fees, and from local property taxes. As state funding for community colleges has stagnated, the remaining two sources must increase their contributions, leading to increased tuition costs and increased property taxes. This year the General Assembly passed a budget with one of the largest increases to community colleges in years, almost fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000). The Governor's Veto takes away ten million dollars ($10,000,000) from the community colleges. This includes the elimination of the three million dollar ($3,000,000) Student for Success Grant program, which provides assistance for students with disabilities. State worker head count: the chart on the top of page 9 shows the total state worker head count from 1972 through 2004. As you can see, 2004 marked to lowest number of state workers in more than thirty (30) years, and the numbers have continued to decrease. As a result, staffing conditions at our correctional facilities are the worst in the Midwest. In Illinois there are three and a half inmates for every front-line staff person, where the national average is two point eight. There has been a 20 percent reduction in staffing levels at the Department of Juvenile Justice. This has resulted in increased incidences of violence at our youth correctional facilities. Currently, there are seven hundred eighty-one (781) back-log cases at the state police crime labs awaiting DNA and forensic analysis. Each social worker at DCFS is responsible for more cases than the department 09500152c.doc 11  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 standards recommend. As a result of inadequate staffing levels, the Howell Developmental Center has lost thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) in federal support. There are currently more than eight hundred (800) veterans waiting for a bed at the state's veterans care facilities, and there has been a 40 percent reduction in the amount of educational programs and services offered at our state parks. Because of these problems, the General Assembly included almost twenty-five million (25,000,000) in the FY'08 budget to add one thousand one hundred and twenty- five (1,125) new positions. However, the Governor vetoed over thirty-one million (31,000,000) in state worker salary lines which is a net decrease of 6.4 million dollars ($6,400,000). This will cause the number of state workers to fall even further. In the area of K through 12 education, the Governor cut several programs which were initiated to provide needed relief for many Illinoisans. Fast growth grants provide some temporary assistance for schools experiencing rapid increases in student population. This allows their other funding sources to catch up. The budget passed by the General Assembly included fifteen million dollars ($15,000,000) to go to these fastest growing school districts in the state but the Governor slashed this line in half. Parents of students may be eligible for reimbursement of transportation costs if they meet certain criteria. Although the cost of gas has increased sharply over the last few years, appropriations for transportation reimbursement has been flat. The 09500152c.doc 12  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 General Assembly proposed increasing the parental transportation reimbursement funding level to catch up with the rising gas costs but instead the Governor decided to veto the line to a level lower than even last years level of funding. Nonpublic schools receive no general state aid or other general assistance from the state but they are acquired… required to adhere too many of the same state and federal mandates as public schools. Public schools receive approximately thirty-nine dollars ($39) per pupil in order to defray these administrative costs each year but nonpublic schools have until this year never received any support for these government mandates that they are forced to comply with despite there non public status. The budget passed by the General Assembly included an additional ten million dollars ($10,000,000) to simply open up this funding mechanism to both public and nonpublic schools at the same thirty-nine dollar ($39) per pupil rate; however, the Governor vetoed this increase. The FY'08 budget contained funding for after school programs across the state. These programs are vitally important to many communities and families who rely on them to provide tutoring and mentoring in an environment free of drugs and violence. The Governor eliminated ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in funding for after school programs. Public health and safety: at a time when the federal government is expending more resources to enable our frontline healthcare facilities to respond to bio-terrorism attacks, infectious diseases, and natural disasters that may cause mass 09500152c.doc 13  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 casualties, the Governor cut almost 1.2 million (1,200,000) for pandemic flu preparedness. The Governor also eliminated a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars ($125,000) to the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System. This is a system that coordinates multi-department police activities, such as emergency response teams and was even awarded a certificate of appre… appreciation by the Governor for coordinating relief efforts during hurricane Katrina. Social justice: the FY'08 budget for the Attorney General contained five million dollars ($5,000,000) for the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, a group that distributes money to organizations that help low… lower income Illinois residents understand their legal rights and resolve their legal problems. The Governor cut this line by 1.5 million (1,500,000) or 30 percent which will adversely affect twenty thousand (20,000) families in the State of Illinois. In a time of increasing violence on our streets and in our schools, the Governor eliminated nearly seven million dollars ($7,000,000) for programs created to fight gun violence, domestic violence and promote safe neighborhoods. Since Governor Ryan put a moratorium on the death penalty, Illinois has done little to address its capital punishment system. Despite this, the Governor eliminated two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) for a capital punishment… punishment reform study committee to look how Illinois will address capital punishment reform. Two hundred and forty thousand dollars ($240,000) was eliminated for the Downstate Innocence Project. To date, 09500152c.doc 14  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 the innocence project has exonerated two hundred seven (207) people in the United States through DNA testing including fifteen (15) who were serving on death row. Local projects: in addition to the programmatic items the budget contains several projects of local significance. Nearly two hundred million (200,000,000) was included to provide funding for local projects, which could not go forward without state assistance. These include projects to enhance public safety such as fire and police departments, educational programs for both young and old, infrastructure projects such as roads, sewers and water lines, recreational and art programs, and assistance to under funded health and human service agencies. The Governor eliminated many of these projects. Governor Blagojevich has defended his Vetoes of these projects. In the News Gazette he is quoted as saying 'a budget should reflect the priorities of the people who elected us to make their lives better'. And the Northwest Herald reported that Governor Rod Blagojevich defended his state budget cuts Tuesday as 'moral choices meant to help people'. And finally, the Chicago Tribune said that a spokeswoman for Blagojevich has stoutly yet preposterously denied that there is any political pattern at all to the cuts or that the Governor's motivated by anything other than fiscal responsibility. But what was the real motivation? To understand that we must look at what was cut and what was not. An analysis of the projects that were eliminated indicate that nearly all House Democratic and all Senate 09500152c.doc 15  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 Republicans' projects were cut; however, all Senate Democrat projects were spared and all House Republican projects were spared. Also the projects of the Members of JCAR, the panel that will approve or reject his health care plan, were also spared. While the Governor left the House Republican projects untouched his motivation for doing so is unknown. It was not at the request of any House Republican Members, and the House Republicans had been explicit about the fact that they oppose the Governor's Vetoes and are in full support of the override. To illustrate this point even more, let's compare some projects, which were cut with some projects that were spared. In Wayne Township, there was a bridge repair, four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000), two appropriations were provided, one by one caucus, one by the other, one of these projects were cut but the other was spared. In terms of hospital grants: identical grants, one to St. Anthony's Hospital, one to St. James Community Hospital for identical one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($15,000), one was cut one was spared. Sewer and waterline repairs: the Village of Port Barrington, one hundred thousand (100,000), the Village of Norridge, one hundred thousand (100,000). Port Barrington was cut Norridge was spared. There's additional examples of this in relation to art centers, fire department improvements, bike paths, road improvements, ADA accessible playground equipment, security cameras, after school programs, and local government buildings. Identical projects for nearly identical 09500152c.doc 16  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 purposes for nearly identical amounts; the only difference is which caucus sponsored the project. In conclusion, House Bill 3866 in the form sent to the Governor was an agreed budget, a budget in which all the pieces fit, a budget in which balance and harmony were achieved through negotiation, compromise, and concession. The Governor's Vetoes violate the basis on which that agreement was achieved. Thank you,"

"My name is Linda Healy and I'm Amendment the Executive Director of Mutual Ground the domestic violence and sexual assault center in Aurora who serves victims in south Kane and all of Kendall County. I've been doing this work for twenty-one (21) years and have been proud of the quality of services that I and my sister agencies have provided to victims in Illinois. So, today I'm going to tell you two stories that I'm not proud of and, in fact, am embarrassed to tell you. Mutual Ground has the largest education prevention program in the state presenting classes on domestic violence, sexual assault, personal body safety, bullying and date rape to forty-two thousand (42,000) school age students yearly. Two weeks ago a woman in our service area had an altercation with her husband that left her bruised and crying. Her seven-year-old son who had had our prevention program in his class room that week was given a bookmark with our phone numbers on it. He gave the book mark to his momma and told her that 'these people can help you'. The mother called and explained where she'd gotten our number, the ending of this story should be that they came into the shelter got all the help they needed and lived happily ever after. Instead, the staff had to tell her that we had no beds available. She 09500152c.doc 18  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 was told to keep calling back in case someone left and was given the number of other domestic violence shelters in our area. We had no space left because we closed four beds in our shelter this year due to lack of money. We've gone from thirty-two (32) beds with additional cribs and cots for children to twenty-eight (28) beds. The twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) I would've received from Member initiative money would have opened up one more bed. This week we had a woman in shelter who gave birth to a baby girl. She came back into shelter from the hospital with her three-day-old baby. That evening she asked staff… a staff member for formula for her baby. The staff member said okay but was on her way to facilitating a parenting group. That left one staff member on the hotline, answering the door and answering questions for the twenty- eight (28) other women in shelter. The parenting class lasted 2 hours and the staff member forgot about the formula. At 6 a.m. the next morning, the associate director, who is an RN was asked by the mom for formula and was told the baby cried all night because she was hungry. The associate director ended up in my office crying and the staff member, who was so overwhelmed by her responsibilities, offered to resign. The fault was not theirs but a staffing problem. We are so short-handed that something as important as baby formula fell through the cracks. I laid off twelve (12) people in 2003 because of the 5 percent from the state, the 2 percent additional cut on '04 and the last two percent cut in '05. I have been 09500152c.doc 19  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 running a shelter that sees nineteen hundred (1900) domestic violence victims and four hundred (400) sexual assault victims yearly on 9 percent less than I had in 2002. Twenty-five thousand (25,000) would have paid for one more staff member. These two stories could have happened and are happening in domestic violence shelters across the state. When you talk about saving the lives of women through breast and cervical cancers by screenings, I wish to remind you that domestic violence shelters are saving lives every day. In Kane County we had fourteen (14) domestic homicides since January. In our community, breast and cervical screenings have been available through our visiting nurse association for free of charge since 1990. We do not need duplication of services for these diseases. We do need more financial support for domestic violence shelters who've been working tirelessly on behalf of women and children for the past thirty-plus years, and the last five with less resources from the state with an increase in clients. Please, please, you are looking at the skeleton of a once healthy domestic violence and sexual assault program who was offered a meal of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000), not enough to put any fat on with but a hand out that would've helped us not starve to death."

"Thank you, Mr. Speaker and Members and friends of the House of Representatives. My name is Art Dykstra, I'm the Director of Trinity Services. Trinity Services serves people on a statewide basis since 1950, people with both mental illness as well as developmental disabilities. Currently, we serve over five hundred and fifty (550) people on a residential basis and have over eleven hundred (1100) employees. The cuts that we're talking about today have had a serious impact on Trinity as well as other providers whom you're going to be hearing form this afternoon. We have a program that serves people with mental illness as Mr. Lowder referenced, we lost that safety net. We lost the ability to bill for those providers who exceeded their Medicaid reimbursement levels. And our… our whole program with developmental disabilities has been devastated. The cuts have had a tremendous negative impact on us; others today will talk about the 2.5 percent cost of living decrease of eleven million dollars ($11,000,000). The crisis teams that were to be put in place were also cut which amounted to 2.1 million (2,100,000). That's especially important because today it's almost impossible to admit anybody to a state operated developmental center. A million dollars ($1,000,000) was cut from family support. This happens in a context of insufficiency. Today Illinois ranks 47th, as you've heard many times, on our way to 50th. There's two things I want to highlight today in my 3 minutes. The first is the autism program services with disability network. This was 09500152c.doc 21  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 a great undertaking; it probably represents some of the best planning in the history of Illinois. And what this would've resulted in was twelve regional centers that would provide diagnostic and treatment services for community outreach centers. It would provide training and support to parents and families and eleven (11) community planning initiatives, which would allow services to be delivered and coordinated on a local level. Thousands of families and parents and individuals would have benefited from this effort. But instead, the ten million (10,000,000) appropriation was slashed by five million dollars ($5,000,000) and so all that remains is one half of the money that was intended. As Peter Senjay has remarked 'dividing an elephant in half doesn't give you two elephants'. All you have when you divide an elephant in half is a mess and so we have a complicated mess. The fact is the character and integrity of the autism network depends on the whole. The interactions and assistant properties must be maintained. The second issue I want to share briefly has to do with the five million dollar ($5,000,000) reduction in grants and purchase care in developmental disabilities budget. I've been in this field for about forty (40) years. There's never been a time any worse than the present for seeking and providing twenty- four-hour residential services to the people of Illinois. Presently there are over five hundred (500) packets in Springfield waiting to be processed and there are six- and seven-month delays. The word 'emergency' no longer has 09500152c.doc 22  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 meaning in the State of Illinois. And so now providers, ourselves included, if your going to live with you own conscious are… are asking and admitting people without funding. We simply cannot let parents die without knowing that their loved one is going to be cared for. And so at a time when we have great demand we have providers beginning to close their homes, collapsing their capacities into a… which is clearly deterioration in quality. And I would tell you this afternoon this ought not to be. And it's for that reason that I would certainly ask that you vote together in overriding the Governor's Veto. Thank you for your consideration."

Andre Arrington: "Thank you. My name is Andre Arrington, Executive Director of the Don Moyer Boys and Girls Club in Champaign, Illinois. I want to thank you and Members of the State House to… of hearing our testimony. Today we ask you to support the hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) that was in the budget to support Boys and Girls Clubs after school programming as well as our smart growth initiative. One would ask, you know, what are the areas of concern for a small urban center such as Champaign/Urbana? We are experiencing the weakening of the family unit, declining moral values amongst teenage girls, declining achievement… academic achievement and ambition amongst teenage males, especially the African-American males within our community, 09500152c.doc 23  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 programming opportunities for young teenagers and also workforce development for young teenagers. We are facing an educational crisis in the Champaign/Urbana community in which a widening achievement… academic achievement gap within our kids. The Boys and Girls Club provides after school assistance on a daily basis, tutorial services as well as youth employment programs. Last year was our first time in diving into the adventure of youth employment. We had six young people to go through this program. All six entered Parkland Community College and are on their way to obtain college degrees. Poverty within Champaign County, many of us think that Champaign County does not have exceptional poverty rate. Champaign Unit 4 has 36 percent poverty; Urbana school district has 51 percent poverty in regards to our school districts. The Boys and Girls Club population has over 80 percent of our kids come from social economic disadvantaged households and single parent households. Many of our kids are… fall within the realm of social emotional disturbance and roughly 20 percent of children in Champaign County are low income and fall within the serious emotional disturbance. These are the kids that many times not diagnosed through mental health services. They function lower in school, they have lower academic attainment, they've also in multi-systems within child welfare and juvenile justice. The Boys and Girls Club have tried to address this issue by establishing juvenile delinquency programs as well as math and science programs to expose minority youth to the… to math and science. The 09500152c.doc 24  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 Boys and Girls Club is in great need of these funds. We are not a fee-for-service program, and with over 80 percent of or population being lower social economic we cannot turn to our population for fees. Park district and other social service agencies in our community are fee-for-service, so we are the only resource in our community for these young people and families to turn to. We provide nutritional snacks for these kids on a daily basis as well as transportation from all of the local schools. We touch every school in the Champaign/Urbana Community in regards to serving kids. We are still faced with the same demands of high gas prices, utilities, and other things that face every business on a daily basis that impacts us to provide services for our kids. So I would like to thank you for hearing our testimony and hopefully that you… we were able to be able to override the Veto for the funding for the Boys and Girls Club in Champaign. Thank you."

Priscilla Coatney: "My name is Priscilla Coatney and I'm Library Administrator for the William Leonard Public Library district in Robbins, Illinois. We are here today to appeal to the House to override the budget cuts for the William Leonard Library. Let me begin by telling you a little bit about the William Leonard Library district. The William Leonard Library district serves the entire Village of Robbins and a portion of unincorporated Cook County. 09500152c.doc 25  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 The population of these areas is approximately seven thousand (7,000) people. This area is considered a very low poverty area. The only 24 percent of the parents in this district have completed twelfth grade. Many of them receive their primary income from temporary assistance to needy families. The medium income in this district is twenty-four thousand one hundred and forty-five dollars ($24,145) and the per capita income is nine thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven dollars ($9,837). The library functions as the nucleolus to an array of community groups and services and indeed is one of the most popular destinations in our community. Currently the library holds several after school tutoring programs for children in kindergarten through twelfth grade in reading and in math. We also hold programming for adults, we have a monthly book club, sign-language training, basic computer skills and special community programming. The vision of the library is to adopt the roll of public information provider for the entire population that it serves. The library sees itself serving as the organization that provides all of the necessary information services for all of the people that it serves. The library serves as the main source to the information highway in this community. This library serves students who have limited library resources in their elementary school district and it also connects the li… the community to the Internet highway, less than 20 percent of the homes in our community are Internet connected. We also serve as a safe haven for minors after school; we serve as 09500152c.doc 26  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 a cooling center in the summer and a warming center in the winter. We are the place that adults come to apply online for employment. Patrons rely on the services of this library to aid in their various educational business and personal pursuits. Obtaining this grant will allow us to replace a leaky roof, leaky metal roof and windows, the ceiling, which is damaged because of the water, replace our air conditioning and heating system and provide new clean carpeting throughout the library system. We appeal to you today to restore the items cut from your budget that relate to our library, because this grant will enable us to provide quality services to a community that depends upon the resources of the William Leonard Library district. Thank you."

"Mr. Chairman, Committee of the Whole, Chairman Hannig and House Members. My name is Martin Rue, I'm with the LaSalle County Veterans Assistance Commission in Ottawa, Illinois. We in the Illinois valley are truly thankful that you've given us the opportunity to be heard pertaining to the devastating 3.5 million dollar ($3,250,000) cut for our LaSalle Veterans Home by Governor Blagojevich, which was to be used for needed staff and medical equipment at our home in LaSalle, Illinois. We have over four hundred and fifty (450) honorably discharged 09500152c.doc 27  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 veterans on our waiting list for admission. Many of our veterans in the area have not applied because of terminal illnesses not affording them the luxury of having to wait for two (2) or three (3) years for admission. We do not want to see this facility completed and sit vacant for six (6) months or longer as it did in the past while staff is being interviewed, hired, and trained. We were pleased to see the passage by the General Assembly of the 2.7 million dollars ($2,700,000) only to find out that the Governor line item vetoed it with his Director of Management and Budget stating in the Chicago Sun Times letter to the editor on September 6, 2007, and I quote 'the veterans facility is simply not ready to open, but when it is ready to open, funding will be available to meet the needs of operations. In the meantime it makes no since to keep the moneys in the budget' end of quote. Head Director Ostrol reviewed the LaSalle Veteran Home head count, she'd have noted that there were a hundred and forty (140) employees there in 2000. By 2002, we were cut to a hundred and twenty-six (126) with twelve (12) empty beds due to absence, employees deemed light duty only, vacations or short notice call offs. In fact, because of the shortage and staff and inability to hire part time employees to meet the home's need in staffing, the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs has had to call other agencies for employees or mandate overtime of our current staff, which costs the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) a year. In August 9, 09500152c.doc 28  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 2007, News Tribune article the Illinois Director Tammy Duckworth said about the LaSalle Veterans Home, and I quote, 'they are now down to a hundred twenty-two (122) staff members including nurses, janitorial etc.' We have approval to hire the staff but there was a freeze on. The two thousand point… 2.7 million dollar ($2,700,000) appropriations for hiring the new workers would not be cut from the budget. Hiring should begin in the winter and fully staffed by the spring of 2008. We have been told numerous times by the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs the LaSalle Veterans Home expansion will be completed by January 15, 2008. At that time that building will be turned over to the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs as completed and ready to use. This means the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs should start the hiring process in November so that they have the employees on board to serve the empty beds and have them filled. We have currently twenty-five (25) empty beds from the original one hundred and eighteen (118) beds in our home that was certified in 1990. The only reason there are empty beds there is because of the shortage of twenty-five (25) health staff personnel. Part of the 2.7 million dollars ($2,700,000) could be used to hire those people now in the current staff instead of having their employees have to work 12 to 16 hours per week per employee and get overtime. To me February starts the spring of construction in the Illinois valley. Realizing that it takes the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs four (4) or more 09500152c.doc 29  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 months to interview, hire or train the needed health care personnel for service in the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. As Director Duckworth has stated in her wanting to have the staff fully staffed by the spring of 2008, it would behoove them to start the hiring process now or our facility is going to remain vacant from January 15, 2008 to June 30, 2008. We plead with you to pleas override the Governors line item Veto of the 2.7 million dollars ($2,700,000) for hiring needs at our LaSalle Veterans Home and the five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) in needed medical care equipment. On Saturday, September 8, 2007, Representative Mautino and Senator Gary Dahl attended the Illinois Veterans' Advisory Counsel meeting at out LaSalle Veterans' Home to explain to the representatives present of the Governor's line item Veto of the 3.25 million (3,250,000) for the home. All present were totally shocked to think that he would not fund health care for our Illinois veterans in need of health care. This Advisory Counsel represents every veterans… major veterans' group in the State of Illinois and auxiliary. On September 8, 2007, the Veterans' Assistance Commissions in Illinois met in Bloomington Illinois. They passed a Resolution there, they said in there resolve clause they implore the Illinois General Assembly to override the Governor's Veto and restore the 2.7 million (2,700,000) for the LaSalle Veterans' Home. I concede to you that you were right in passing the legislation needed to adequately fund our LaSalle Veterans' Home. Illinois Department of Veterans' 09500152c.doc 30  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 Affairs Director, Tammy Duckworth, was right when she said we need the 2.7 million (2,700,000) and it shouldn't be cut from the LaSalle Veterans' Home because we must start the hiring process in winter in order to be ready to go January of 2008. As President Lincoln said, 'stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he stands right and part with him when he goes wrong'. I tell you that the Governor was wrong with his line item Veto of the 3.25 million dollars ($3,250,000) for the LaSalle Veterans' Home health care needs. Please part with him and override his Veto. Only you can save our LaSalle Veterans' Home now."

"Jim Bohnsack, Rock Island County Board Chairman. I'm here today to talk about our nursing home. It’s a two hundred and forty-five (245) bed new one that we were just constructing. We were lined itemed out of fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). Twenty-four million (24,000,000) is a lot of money to build a nursing home but we have got twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) in revenue bonds to help pay for it. We are four million dollars ($4,000,000) short. We have cut drastically everything we could and one of the things we did cut was a canopy that goes over the… the 09500152c.doc 31  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 nursing home so that people in the wheelchairs and that can in the snow and the bad weather can get in out of that to get to our nursing home. We bared bones, we've cut that out. Representative Verschoore had added that fifty thousand (50,000) in to get a canopy for us. It's… it's cut now, we have been to our taxpayers twice in the last eight (8) years and have agreed to give a property tax increase to help subsidize that nursing home. So we are very thankful we have two good Representatives, Representative Boland and Representative Verschoore, that have always helped us with the nursing home and I'm sure ill continue. So it's important that we do get that fifty thousand dollars ($50,000). It's not… I'll guarantee you it's not a pork issue. It's very drastically needed and somehow we do need to get that carport canopy in. Thank you."

Will Ashford: "Willy Ashford, I'm the Violence Prevention Coordinator of CeaseFire in Rockford, Illinois. Thank you. CeaseFire is a vital component of our states campaign to stem the ever increasing tide of violence. It is a program and a campaign to reduce and stop the number of homicides and shootings in our communities. CeaseFire of Rockford has been in existence since 2004. The City of Rockford has seen a decrease in crimes and homi… and homicides and CeaseFire has been an important partner and cattle… 09500152c.doc 32  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 catalyst in this improvement. Many of… many of you have seen the data which proves that our program works through mediating violent conflicts, working with angry and hurt young men and women. We work in their homes and at the hospitals. Those stats are needed but they don't tell the human side of our work. It doesn’t talk about the parents who's lost a child to violence, the teenager who wants revenge for or against someone who killed his or her brother. Our outreach workers have spent over 11 hours with individuals, young men and women who are trying to stop their hurt by hurting someone else. We believe it's important that our program keeps going and continues to be funded. CeaseFire does save lives. Thank you very much."

"Yes, thank you. My name is Robert Ritschel, I'm the President of Spoon River College. Last spring the nation was shocked at the carnage that took place on the campus of Virginia Tech. University. An extremely troubled young man moved from building to building and gunned down over thirty (30) students, a number that still remains incomprehensible. Following the original shock and outrage, the nations higher education institutions launched a comprehensive review of the effectiveness of their security and emergency notification procedures. Like most, my colleagues found them to be somewhat inadequate. We are located on a remote county road and we have no campus cops, 09500152c.doc 33  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 no city police force. With the assistance of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) that Representative Mike Smith had arranged for the college to receive, we were planning to use the funds to upgrade our telecommunication system, enabling us to warn our child care center, our students and staff of a dangerous situation that may be life threatening was in progress. I'm sad to report that this fall there were additional incidents on the campus of Delaware State University, St. Johns University and Middle Tennessee State University among others. Of course, we all hope and pray that these incidents will cease but we are not optimistic. We owe it to our students to provide a safe learning environment and our staff a safe working environment. Twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) may sound like chump change to some but to a small rural community college in west central Illinois it could buy a lot of safety, security, and maybe even a small measure of comfort. Thank you."

"My name is Jeff Kurth; I am the Vice President of Finance at Pioneer Center for Human Services. From its beginnings almost fifty (50) years ago as a single day school program, Pioneer Center, last year assisted over thirteen hundred (1300) people in its service area which includes all of McHenry County. Pioneer Center addresses the needs of adults and children with mental illnesses, 09500152c.doc 34  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 developmental or related disabilities, traumatic brain injuries as well as victims of sexual assault and individuals and families that are homeless. The state is not given community providers the cost of doing business or a cost of living increase in three (3) years. Because of this, Pioneer has been diligently looking at every way imaginable to cut costs while still maintaining our high quality of care to the clients but also in trying to maintain staff morale and staffing levels. Everyone here knows that the cost of utilities, gas, and insurance continues to go up; yet, the state has not given us increases in over three (3) years. And they still expect us to take care of the state's most venerable citizens. An example of this is our cost of staff health insurance which increased by two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) last fiscal year. After so many years of cutting expenses there aren't any areas of our company that we can squeeze that type of increase out of and we had to pass some of these cost on to our already underpaid staff. I would be remised if I don't mention that there has been no increase in the budget for mental health services. So for that part of our business we are looking at four (4) years with no additional funds. The Governor was going to cut 1 percent out of a two and a half percent proposed increase for developmental services. The latest information we have heard is it is still in the budget, lets hope it stays in. Even at that level the increase works out to less than 1 percent per year for the last three (3) years. These cuts 09500152c.doc 35  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 will hurt those that the Governor says he wants to help most, the underserved citizens. In addition, we have a hard working caring and professional staff at Pioneer that we are struggling with to retain, to hire new positions, to maintain affordable health care, give them cost-of-living increases and generally reward them for their commitment to the clients. In spite of these increased financial difficulties, Pioneer Center has been working diligently to not only survive and cut costs wherever possible, but more importantly to continue to meet the community needs of McHenry County. With this in mind Pioneer Center's asking that the proposed funding cuts to the increases in community services in the FY'08 budget be restored. We would also encourage the state to consider the following option: by formula, given an annual cost of doing business, cost-of-living increase based on an index such as the consumer price index. Stop making community providers beg for funds every year and forced to except less than the rate of inflation. The state relies on our good hearts and ingenuity to take care of our clients and it is time to change the system so the state can responsibly take care of its most needy citizens. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on behalf of Pioneer Center clients, families, and staff. I would also like to thank Speaker Madigan for organizing the regional budget hearings, Representative Jack Franks, and Senator Pam Althoff for hosting the hearings, as well as our other local 09500152c.doc 36  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 legislatures, Mike Tryon, Mark Obain, and William Peterson for their on-going support. Thank you." Chairman Hannig: And thank you. That concludes the remarks of our second panel. We'd like to thank all of the gentlemen for coming to Springfield and… and presenting testimony. Our third panel will now come forward. Welcome to Springfield one and all. We're going to start with Lynn O'Shea. Lynn, why don't you state your name for the record and your position and then you have 3 minutes, and we thank you."

Lynn O'Shea: "I'm Lynn O'Shea, I'm the Director of the Association for Individual Development in Aurora AID. And AID has been in existence since 1961 serving individuals with mental health and developmental disabilities. Last year AID served more than four thousand (4,000) children and adults in Kane and Kendall Counties. The Governor's Veto of funds for our programs has had a substantial affect. First it completely eliminated funds to operate our CeaseFire Program, which resulted in the program's closure. Unfortunately, the Veto was announced retro- active to July 1, putting AID in the awkward position of having paid staff and program expenses for nearly two months before the Veto occurred. This not only left our employees suddenly without jobs and our community without gang violence prevention services, but further left AID without funds to pay the resulting unemployment costs of laying off the staff. In total this cost AID more than sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) and an additional loss of 09500152c.doc 37  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 a hundred and eighty thousand dollars ($180,000) to operate the program for the balance of the year. The next major impact on AID was the Veto of the two and a half percent salary increase for staff in our developmental disabilities programs. This affected more than three hundred (300) AID employees and their families. Our entry level staff earns less than twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) a year. This is a very difficult wage to make ends meet in this day and age with rising fuel costs utilities and other consumer products health and other insurance as well as state payment delays that require us to use a line of credit and pay interest expense, which the state does not reimburse. Not only have our employees had to absorb the added work load from reduced staff positions, which totaled twenty- five at the beginning of this year, they also struggled to cover these increased costs of living. Other Veto reductions impacting AID included elimination of a two and a half percent increase for our ICFDD and day training programs, funding cuts in our employment and developmental training programs affecting more than six hundred (600) disabled adults, elimination of the 3 percent cost of living increase for staff in our alcohol and substance abuse programs, and elimination of one-time grants that would've provided funds to help pay for rising fuel and utility costs. These totaled an additional sixty-five thousand (65,000) in cuts. Budget Vetoes affecting AID'S mental health services were also significant. As the state made the switch from grants to fee-for-service, funds were 09500152c.doc 38  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 needed to help pay for those conversion costs. All of those were vetoed from the budget. In addition to the nine million dollars ($9,000,000), the state needed to hire an administrative agent to make this conversion work. We're extremely concerned that this will now be… nine million dollars ($9,000,000) in administrative costs will now be paid by reducing mental health services to our consumers. This would cost AID an additional forty-five thousand (45,000). Last, but certainly not least, vetoed funds were targeted for home-based and CILA services for children and adults on our waiting lists. Students aiding on a special education programs will now have to sit at home without any program support. These will be added to the more than three hundred (300) children currently are waiting for services in Kane and Kendall Counties. Kane and Kendall County alone have more than sixteen thousand (16,000) children in special education; more than half of these will need services in the next decade. Instead of being able to meet this growing need, our services are being reduced. We're asking you to have a heart and join the disability coalition's campaign to override the Governor's Vetoes. We urge you to restore funds for these critically needed community disability services. Thank you."

"Good afternoon, my name is Michael Moran. I am here as both the Executive Director of Breaking Free, which 09500152c.doc 39  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 is a community-based outpatient prevention and treatment agency that's been operating and serving individuals in Kane, DuPage, and Grundy Counties since 1977. I also wear the hat as the Vice President, IADDA, which is the Illinois Alcohol Drug Dependence Association, our CEO will also be addressing this topic a little bit later this afternoon. I would like to express my appreciation for the opportunity to discuss the critical issues of substance abuse treatment funding with you. I also am especially grateful to the Honorable Representative Patricia Reed Lindner for extending the opportunity to speak before you today. I'm here today really as a voice for thousands of Illinois residents in need of substance abuse treatment services as well as for those agencies like Breaking Free that are struggling to make ends meet while… while we provide these needed essential services. In particular, what I'm hoping to do is to join the voices that are asking the Members of Illinois Legislature to take action to override the Governor's Veto of a 3 percent cost of doing business increase for substance abuse treatment providers. As you know, adequate health care is a priority here in Illinois. Substance abuse treatment services needed by thousands of Illinois citizens are a critical component of a strong health care system in our state. At a time when basic costs of keeping our doors open and maintaining qualified staff continues to increase Breaking Free, like many other addiction treatment agencies across the state, struggles to make ends meet. The largest single items in our budget are 09500152c.doc 40  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 the cost of employee salaries and benefits. In an increasingly competitive job market, our ability to attract and retain highly qualified professionals is directly affected by our rate of reimbursement. Like other businesses in Illinois, our operating cost, utilities, health care insurance, salaries, occupancy costs et cetera, have steadily increased, at least since I've joined the agency in 1999, but our reimbursement rates have failed to keep up with these escalating costs. We began the current fiscal year with one less clinical position than last year due to these increasing costs and the failure for our revenue to keep pace. In a state that values health care for all, our cost of employment health care premiums… premiums has increased significantly. We are increasingly challenged to do more with less. We are being forced to choose between keeping the lights on or paying our staff adequate living wages, a struggle that ultimately is a losing proposition. The difficulty we face in attracting and retaining qualified professionals creates a dilemma by forcing youth and adults in need of treatment in our community to be placed on waiting lists. At any giving time we are informing individuals in need of treatment that the first counseling appointment available to them is up to two weeks away, a significant barrier to clients in need of these essential health care services. We do know that people who have to wait for treatment are less likely to actually begin treatment and even less likely to complete treatment. Instead, if treatment's not available, they 09500152c.doc 41  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 will continue to use mood… mood altering substances until they become involved with local law enforcement, the child welfare system or until they get behind the wheel of a vehicle causing a fatal accident. Addiction affects not just the individual but everyone in our community. The link between untreated addiction and a variety of problems is well documented. Without treatment, crime rates increase, domestic violence rates increase, child abuse rates go up, health care costs increase and lives are lost. Access to treatment allows individuals to begin a life of recovery reducing these and other societal costs. When we cannot provide adequate treatment services, everyone pays the price. The failure to provide substance abuse agencies with sufficient funding results in staff reductions, which leads to increased waiting lists and these increased problems in our community. Without the 3 percent cost of doing business increase for substance abuse treatment, providers will continue to… continue to be forced to do more with less and people in need of services will suffer. Had the budget been enacted as originally approved this 3 percent increase would have been only the second cost of doing business increase for substance abuse treatment in almost a decade. At Breaking Free, we cannot continue to adequately serve our community in an environment of flat funding as our costs continue to rise and the demand for services increase. I am asking for your help in… in overriding the Veto and including substance abuse prevention funding in the cost of doing business increase. 09500152c.doc 42  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 Please return the 3 percent cost of doing business increase to Illinois substance abuse treatment providers and support the thousands of people in Illinois who need substance abuse treatment. Thank you again for your time and the opportunity to speak with you and for your concern for the residents of Illinois. I appreciate your time today. I look forward to working with you to strengthen our efforts in this great state."

"Good afternoon. My name is Pat Ludvigsen; I am the acting Mayor of the City of Prospect Heights. I'm here today asking that you override the Governor's budget Veto which eliminated my city's one hundred thousand dollar ($100,000) allocation to move Levee 37 forward. Levee 37 has been in the planning stages since 1987 and will reduce property damage on the east side of my city due to heavy rains. When the Des Planes River reaches flood stage levels over sixty-five hundred (6500) residents, three (3) hotels and many businesses must prepare for the possibility of their property going under water. Also Milwaukee Avenue, a major state highway with over thirty thousand (30,000) cars worth of daily traffic, must be closed until the water recedes. In the past three (3) years, the City of Prospect Heights and the Village of Mt. Prospect have had to build a temporary wall twice to ward off the threat of flooding. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been 09500152c.doc 43  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 spent in these efforts, along with countless volunteer hours of people living in the area. Prospect Heights needs the money that was removed from the budget by the Governor to pay for land so that the Levee 37 project can continue. Prospect Heights is a non-Home Rule community with very limited revenue streams, we need this funding. It is ironic that I learned of the removal of the Levee 37 project money from the budget the day our city was planning… in the planning stages of our second sandbagging effort in three (3) years. I personally have spent many hours sandbagging and know how important this project is to my community. Levee 37 is not a bridge to nowhere nor is it a pork project. Levee 37 will protect the property of thousand of members of my community. Please override the Governor's Veto so that the residents on the east side of my community do not have to worry whether their homes will flood every time we get a heavy rain. Thank you."

"Good afternoon. My name is Denise Myrick I'm here on behalf of the Seed of Abraham Fellowship Christian Ministry. I'm going to briefly discuss just the general impact that these budget cuts have on urban communities across the state, in general, and in urban communities, 09500152c.doc 44  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 specifically. I work in the legal field, and in the legal field some cases can be won on its face. This is prima facie case of discrimination. The majority of these budget cuts are discriminatory because they hit homes of minorities, downtrodden disabled, and senior citizens. Homes where they live below… at if not below the poverty level, homes where they're concerned about after school care because they work twelve (12) hours making eight dollars ($8.00) an hour and can't afford what they already are paying in… in… in child care. After school care is being cut in these communities. Domestic violence is not being funded in theses communities. Communities with a rich income, they're not worried about after school programs because they have nannies. In our community we do not have nannies, we can not afford them. We need after school programs. You're cutting… the Governor is cutting funding for people who need this to bridge the gap so that they can have ends meet. I'm sure that he is not concerned about ends meeting, but we are. These cuts are affecting our community. We have a drop out rate in urban communities… African Americans drop out of school 38 percent; Latinos, 21 percent, 60 percent of freshmen going into high school do not graduate. This is what we live with and this is what's being cut. They're not funding ex- convicts coming into the community to… so that they can learn how to have skills and get jobs, and so therefore, we have more crime in the community. We're not… we're cutting fund… he's cutting funding so that crime cannot be 09500152c.doc 45  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 prevented in certain communities in the urban… in the urban cities. I think that the Governor has lost concept of what he spoke about when he was running for election, when he came to the black communities, into our churches talking about he understood our plight. He apparently does not understand our plight when most of these budget cuts, cut urban communities, black communities. We need these fundings. We need computer classes so that our children can learn how to do résumés on the computer. This has become a technology society, they don't know how to do that. After school programs, community based organizations that are trying to do that, now the funding is no longer available. We are not quite sure in the urban community, whether the strategy is to put people back in IDOC or whether to help profit our community so that we can have a better society. I'm not really sure if the Governor understands what our forefathers meant about the United States Constitution Preamble when it says, 'we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect Union.' A perfect union means that we all come together for the betterment of everyone. This country, this state, these communities are no better than the weakest community that exists within it. We need to understand that also in the Preamble it states, 'to promote the general welfare.' General welfare means organized efforts to benefit the poor, the downtrodden, the senior citizens, the disabled. It also says, 'secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity', posterity meaning our future 09500152c.doc 46  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 generations. The urban communities… those future generations also are part of the United States future generations. Although we are considered minorities, we're a majority in number and if our majority in number is downtrodden, poor, then how does the Governor think that we he is a senior citizen that he is going to survive when our generation is being cut? Thank you."

"Hi and God Bless. My name is Pastor Miguel Dominguez I'm from the Seed of Abraham Christian Fellowship Center. I just want to… I can relate to what Denise is speaking here this afternoon. Many of us get away from what… what the necessity here in… in our urban communities are and these programs that are being cut. It's a very… it's a big need in our community. I know. I was raised in the Humble Park community, in the Reese Park community, in the Logan Square community. I didn't want to become a statistic or a number, I wanted to make a difference within my community but it's kind of hard to do… to do that and to proceed when our… when our programs are being cut. As a Pastor, I've gone to more funerals than I've seen programs in my neighborhood. I've gone to more funerals, more hospitals seeing people shot up because they have no where to go. If we cut these programs, where are these kids going to go? If you cut there little league baseball when they want to grow up and be somebody professional… want to be somebody, where are they… where are these kids going to go? What kind… what kind of message are we sending to our generation? What kind of 09500152c.doc 47  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 message are we sending to the community? What kind of message do we… do we teach our children? Our children grow up in these neighborhoods. I'm tired of moving. Every time the neighborhood gets bad we gotta move somewhere else. Well, I'm going to tell you something, I'm not moving to Naperville, I'm not moving to DuPage I'm staying in Humble Park. And we have to do something to bring these programs, and keep these programs up and I think that it is more important for us to look at our children. They're our future. Each and every one of you that sit in those chairs have been elected. Praise God. What's going to happen with our children? I think it's time for us to be the voice of our constituents of our community and let them know that if he cuts these programs he's not putting a dent into the community, but he's killing the communities. And I think it's time for us to arise and shine because, you know what, there has to be glory. Not upon us but upon our children, our future. I have to say one thing and I'm going to end it with this. When he was growing up, what kind of community was he living in? I'm going to keep it bold and honest and I'm radical, but I'm going to tell you something, he don't have to worry about any… any programs for… for his constituents because I'm sure that they have it. What's happening in the Humble Park community, it's a shame. There's 50 percent Hispanics and 50 percent blacks, what are we doing? What are we doing? What are we going to do, continue to cut? It's a shame that we can't even teach our children how to open up a laptop because they 09500152c.doc 48  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 don't even know where the power button is to even turn it on. It's time for us to acknowledge that we need this technology, we need this. The kids need to know what it is to open up a computer, fill out a job application. Now these days, you can't fill out a application like it was back in the day, sit down and fill it out, no they say go online. Well, how are they going to go online if they don't even know how to open up a computer or turn on the button? My thing is that I think it's time for us to support these programs and I commend… I recommend that you veto the Governor's cut."

"My name is Cathy Ficker Terrill and I'm the Chairperson of the Illinois Institute on Public Policy for People with Disabilities, I'm also the CEO of the Ray Graham Association. I want to thank Speaker Madigan and all of you for your leadership in hosting these hearings. So what is a life worth? Is it worth a penny a day? A penny a day is the cost to taxpayers of… if Illinois this year, if we fund the full budget for people with disabilities is passed by the General Assembly. That penny would allow non-profit community agencies to give direct 09500152c.doc 49  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 care staff a tiny salary increase. On average our staff earn eight dollars and sixty-five cents ($8.65) an hour. A 2 percent increase would mean an annual raise of three hundred and fifty-nine dollars ($359) for the whole year. This for staff who help people with disabilities to bathe, to groom, and to dress themselves. This penny would allow for a small expansion of community services when Illinois has thousands of people on the waiting list for services. Funding to enable Illinois citizens with disabilities to live in the community is not an expense, it's an investment, an investment in peoples lives, their future, and our fellow citizens. Overriding the Governor's Veto of this increase for community agencies is not extravagant. I, too, as a taxpayer want lower taxes, not a dollar to be wasted and certainly no pork in the budget but perhaps the Governor needs to revisit the definition of 'pork'. 'Pork' is unnecessary and frivolous, 'pork' is not helping people with disabilities to live and work in their community. No Governor, it's not about pork, it's about people, real lives. A Government should not… a Government should be judged by how they treat the least among us who are able. Governor, based upon how you are treating people with disabilities, Illinois is not a gracious state. Legislators, please override the Governor's Veto, peoples lives depend on it. Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Good afternoon. My name is Dee Braden I'm the Executive Director of the Coles County Council on Aging. I'm here this afternoon on behalf of the Life Span Center project. Specific and special thinks to Representative Chapin Rose. The Life Span Center appropriation to date, two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) vetoed sponsored by Senator Dale Ryder, fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) intact to date sponsored by Representative Chapin Rose. Nine thousand (9,000) people, people, ordinary people with real often life threatening and basic, very basic human needs, people of all ages many of whom are frail older adults. An eighty-two-year-old great grandfather who is now raising two great grandchildren, one of whom is an infant; a young man who was paralyzed in a Christmas Eve auto accident; a widow of eighty-four years who is legally blind has two chronic illnesses and who cannot pay her heating bill and by food and medicine in the same month. A seventy-two- year-old widower who is a quadriplegic, has one leg amputated, has cancer, arthritis, a history of strokes, uses a power wheel chair and attempts, attempts to live on seven thousand seven hundred and sixteen dollars ($7,716) per year, not per month, per year. A total of five hundred and fifty-four thousand one hundred and ninety-six dollars ($554,196) in income tax refunds returned to a total of seven hundred and seventy-eight (778) low income individuals in our county. These are but brief glimpses into the Coles County Council on Aging and what restoration of the originally sponsored two hundred and fifty thousand 09500152c.doc 51  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 dollars ($250,000) will accomplish for persons of all ages through the Life Span Center, an intergenerational multipurpose model facility. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) in funding for the Life Span Center will not fund just bricks and mortar. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) will serve as a foundation on which we will build programs and services that will significantly, immediately, and measurably impact and improve the lives of potentially nine thousand people. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) will build a foundation on which the Coles County Council on Aging will develop and expand programs that will provide hope, help, and the promise of a healthier and brighter tomorrow. Doors will be erected that will enable clients to walk through and gain access to critical, critical programs. Hallways will lead clients to trained staff who can serve as a conduit to arrange to buy medication, have a roof repaired, pay for a heating or cooling bill, buy groceries, prepare a living will, file necessary forms to establish eligibility for state and federal programs and assist in times of crisis. Stairs and elevators will help clients to raise themselves up by providing in-home care, respite to loved ones and instill a since of community support. Educational, recreational and intergener… intergenerational activities, many sponsored by Eastern Illinois University and Lakeland College will serve as the walls that will bind us together. Many of these Coles County Council on Aging programs actually cost the State of 09500152c.doc 52  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 Illinois less in the long run than institutional care or serving people through public aid roles. This project is an investment of money, time, talent, treasures, wisdom, local, public, private, and state and federal resources. This energy evidenced in the research and development process, the intricate planning activities and stages, progress to date, age ranges, personal and professional diversity in commitment, and continued fluid vision for the future all combine to build a facility that will serve clients for literally decades to come. Quality of life, dignity, health, choice, respect, independence and self fulfillment, your support will give us the tools to provide a solid framework for the faces of yesterday, today, and tomorrow to avail themselves of basic, very basic human needs, be of service to others, actively participate in their own care, foster intergenerational relationships and grow community partnerships. I believe each of you have our packet in front of you. On behalf of the nine thousand (9,000) people of all ages, and I stress people with very basic critical human needs, we ask your support, we need your support, we implore you, and once again thank you Representative Chapin Rose."

"It's Kathy Schimpf, and yes, there's no 'R' in it, so. I, Kathy Schimpf, appear before you today as a concerned life long Illinois cin… citizen. However, more importantly as the Executive Director of the Williamson County Child Advocacy Center. I come to you concerned and appalled at the cutting of funds requested by Legislators in my area. Representative John Bradley, a strong supporter of the center and of abused children that we serve, had planed to set aside ten thousand dollars ($10,000) to help abused children at my center. Now, normally we in southern Illinois would say that ten thousand dollars ($10,000) might be considered a drop in the bucket, a measly sum, a mere penitence, too little to matter or truly insignificant. I'm here to assure you that it's more than a drop in the bucket, more than a measly sum, more than a mere penitence and it does matter and would have been truly significant especially to the ten 09500152c.doc 56  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 (10) abused children whose broken lives would have been benefited from the much needed additional counseling sessions we were going to offer. It would have been significant to the twelve-year-old girl who stepfather turned her dreams into nightmares every night. The nine- year-old boy who must learn that the man who molested him is at fault, not him. The sixteen-year-old girl who must go to school everyday and be shunned by all of her former friends because she told about the favorite tennis coach who raped her after taking her home from practice. The four-year-old who tells the therapist about how she interrupted her stepfather's TV football game to ask for a glass of milk and became the brunt of his anger shown on her back with the mark of the pointed end of his cowboy boot as a lasting reminder. The eleven-year-old twin girls who must try to understand why their beloved substance abusing mother has become their pimp for various weekends for visitors who come to their home. The seventeen-year- old, whose father has been sexually assaulting her since she was seven, has now lost interest in her and is now looking to her seven-year-old sister to perform the wifely duties. The ten-year-old boy who must go into court and tell the whole world about how his scout leader, whom he respected, recently took him on his first camping trip and showed him graphic pornographic material in order to lower his resistance to the… to the coach… to the leader's sexual advances. And finally the five-year-old whose childhood innocence has been lost and may never be regained because 09500152c.doc 57  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 of the adult sexual assault of them. These children I have told you about are not figments of my imagination; they are actual children who have come to our center for help. Please, please, help me know how I'm going to go to these children and say to them the extra counseling sessions that you wanted to help you to go on and relive and rebuild your life is not going to be there. How can anyone, legislatures, citizens, believe that this small amount of money can be a pork project and not worth having money funded for them? It's a task I do not look forward to, it's a task I shouldn't have to do. What if this was your child? What if I'm describing your child? What if I'm describing your grandchild? Would the need of this type of funding be insignificant? I think not. Thank you."

"Amanda Minor, Public Health Administrator of Douglas County Health Department. Dear House Representatives: In October 2006 the Douglas County Health Department undertook a survey of eleven (11) counties within Senator Righter's district surveying dental providers who accepted the medical card or All Kids. Out of the eleven (11) counties very few accepted the new Medicaid or All Kid patients and most had stipulations such as children only or only residents of that individual county. This study represents the reason the department chose to create a dental and medical facility housed in the health department. This facility would provide services to 09500152c.doc 58  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 the un… uninsured and underinsured who have no other resources to turn to. While the department secured funding through a private foundation that… that funding represents only one-fifth of the needed moneys to make the clinic completely operational. With the Governor's push towards health care, we approached Senator Righter to procure… procure additional funds for this construction project. Since this project exemplifies the administration's view on health care, we along with Senator Righter felt very confident in the acceptance of this additional funding into the approved budget. The Government… Governor's administration has ousted over five thousand (5,000) new recip… recipients into the Medicaid population, which will result in a bottleneck system without the addition of new Medicaid clinics. Medicaid clients will not receive the services promised to them by this government because of the unavailability of clinics that accept Medicaid in rural areas. In rural areas, clinics are not allowed to survive with payments that are late and at rates that are either half or even a quarter of the asked rates; clinics are hesitant on accepting new Medicaid clients. As a health department, we service many Medicaid, uninsured, and underinsured clients. We have been approached daily for locations of medical and dental offices that accept Medicaid. We are fortunate to have one dentist in our county that accepts Douglas County Medicaid children until his caseload gets to full. The closest location for a dentist that accepts adults on Medicaid is in Peoria; this 09500152c.doc 59  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 is at least a two hour drive for most county residents with a total round trip mileage of two hundred and ten (210) miles. The drive alone would cost the already struggling family approximately thirty dollars ($30.00) in gas. This does not include the additional cost of taking off work for an entire day instead of just an hour or two at our clinic or the reliability on an already stressed vehicle. This already struggling family is promised health care from the government; however, finds out that nothing is ever free. Governor Blagojevich stands on broken promises and then shatters plans for a better health care future for families of Illinois. We ask the Governor to equalize out his health care plan and create clinics that will accept families that need a constant foundation to flourish. The Douglas County Health Department Dental and Medical Clinic can be this foundation and can prevent an inev… inevitable constraint in the Governor's health care plan. Thank you."

"Yes, good afternoon. My name is Margaret Larson and I am the Stevenson County Director for University of Illinois Extension. I've worked in higher education since 1982 as both an educator and administrator. I joined Extension three (3) years ago as a county director. I'd like to say thank you to Representative Jim Sacia for inviting me to address the Committee of the Whole, and thank you to Extension partners for their efforts throughout the budgeting process. Thank you to the 09500152c.doc 60  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 House of Representatives for the opportunity to present… present my perspective on the impact of budget cuts on the future of Extension. I want to bring to your attention the value of 4-H youth educators in Stevenson County, which is not unlike the value of 4-H youth educators in every county across the country, tapping the wealth of information generated by our land grant universities. The most pressing problems of youth ages ten (10) to seventeen (17) include drug and alcohol abuse, sexual responsibility, delinquency, youth violence, and gangs. According to Extension partners' research shows that dollars invested in educational programs for high risk youth are well spent. The programs have proven to keep youth in schools and give them skills necessary to become productive citizens, the estimated return is five to one. In other words, five dollars ($5.00) are saved in terms of the cost of crime and incarceration for every dollar spent on educational programming. Youth development is at the heart of the positive change in Stevenson County. Unlike many counties in Illinois, our Extension has a dedicated 4-H youth educator, who in addition to advising and administrating, out seventeen (17) active 4-H clubs also collaborates with area youth organizations, school personnel, church leaders to provide preventative programs for children and young adults in Stevenson County. For example, Teen Conference now in its fourteenth year, is a day long program for eighth graders. Teen Conference teaches these thirteen- year-olds the importance of leadership and community 09500152c.doc 61  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 service and introduces them to individuals and organizations in our county that can support their growth as productive citizens. Science Siesta and Advanced Science Siesta are over-night programs for young women, opening their eyes and aspirations to the variety of careers in the field of science, including: engineering, veterinarian medicine, and pharmacology to name a few. Health Jam a region wide program, which just happened this week, is offered… or last week, is offered in collaboration with students from the University of Illinois Medical School in Rockford. Fifth graders spend two (2) days with 4-H youth educators and medical students learning about nutrition, fitness and wellness. The healthy habits learned at Health Jam are reinforced throughout the year as our 4-H youth educator continues the learning in the class room. Last year's class produced a school-wide health fare to further share the knowledge they gained at Health Jam. Loss of our twenty-nine (29) 4-H youth educator positions hurts the youth of Stevenson County and will have a far reaching impact on many, many communities. As you consider this and future budget decisions, I urge you to override the Governor's Veto and invest in extension for our efficiency and efficacy in touching the lives of youth in every community, in every county across the state. Thank you."

"Yes, good afternoon. My name is Gordon Eggers and I am the CEO for Crusader Clinic in Rockford, Illinois, which is the largest community health center in Illinois. I have been there twenty (20) years. Community health centers like Crusader as you know take care of the indigent, the low income, uninsured, or underinsured. I'd like to thank Representative Dave Winters for his invitation to discuss the impact of our local health initiative and thank Chairman Hannig, Speaker Madigan, Leader Cross and Members of the House. I would like to say thanks also to the Governor and General Assembly for including an additional three million dollars ($3,000,000) in community health center expansion programs to give more access and quality care to the poor. Our business case and business portfolio is the poor, and for recognizing the importance of community health centers as the largest network of… largest network of primary care in the United States, and is, frankly, a major solution to the complex health care initiatives. I am here on behalf of my community health center, and its forty-two thousand (42,000) patients, and I should mention twenty-eight thousand (28,000) voters, to talk about my project. I'm hear in the news about many projects and their worthiness, I understand the complexity of funding, but I'd like to talk about the ascetical quality the Crusader gives in terms of the local initiative that Senator Stevenson put us in for fifty thousand (50,000). As you know community health centers work against the barriers to care such as 09500152c.doc 63  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 access, affordability, quality, ethnic, and gender. As matching community health centers largest primary care system in the United States, Crusaders Clinic's the largest in Illinois. We're a local grass roots control, 51 percent of our board of directors are patients. As mentioned, our business portfolio's the poor. The community health center has served sixteen million (16,000,000) patients, we don't urn away anyone. Seven in ten people we take care of are at the poverty level, one in five are uninsured, one in four are low income minorities, one in nine on Medicaid. We're a sound investment, documented high quality and community health centers were given the highest rating by the Department of Health and Service, Office of Management and Budget for fiscal year 2006 for competitive programs. We're great value for the buck. In Illinois, community health centers take care of nine hundred and ninety thousand (990,000) people, three hundred (300) sites. Three hundred and thirty-six thousand (336,000) of these people are uninsured, 77 percent are at the poverty level or below. A family of four can barely get by on present means. Crusader Clinic itself takes care of nearly forty- two thousand (42,000) patients, a hundred and sixty thousand (160,000) visits is a lot of folks. Seventy-three percent of our people are at the poverty level. Twenty-one thousand (21,000) of these are moms and children. Fourteen thousand (14,000) are uninsured and we take care of them, affordable, accessible, give them medical home with your own doctor or provider, it's integrated. We do all of 09500152c.doc 64  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 these on just four million dollars ($4,000,000) out of our twenty-three million dollar ($23,000,000) operations… four million (4,000,000) of federal assisted funds so every dollar counts. Today, briefly, I'll mention that in Rockford we do have an access issue for obstetrics. Crusader Clinic as a community health center has responded by hiring an additional obstetricians, we have four, we have tremendous nurse practitioners. We have created tremendous access and frankly, have brought a community solution. We deliver in Rockford, 25 percent of all the babies born in that area. We will deliver nine… close to a thousand (1,000) babies this year, we delivered nine hundred and eighty (980) last year. Crusader has been mentioned, recognized three (3) years ago as the number one community health center in the United States for birth weight outcomes. We really know what we're doing. We have done recently a build out, we put together tremendous woman's health service to take care of our twelve thousand (12,000) patients. This money put aside for us through the health initiative from Senator Stevenson. The fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) is going to be used to build out the basic medical equipment in our area and we'll put it to good use. We run a community health center that is focused on our patients; we run it as a business; we run it from doing good to great. I thank you for your bipartisan support of community health centers as a outcome driven solution. I thank once again the Governor, the General Assembly for there support and I hope that you are able to 09500152c.doc 65  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 take the money and put it to community health centers in a best way. Thank you."

"Yes, my name's Dennis Eller. I'm the Executive Director of the Mid-Illinois Chapter of the American Red Cross in Decatur, Illinois. And I would thank you all for having us here today. I'm here today to testify in support of overriding the Governor's Veto of this year's budget as passed by the Legislature. The Legislature had included in its budget a one-time grant of seventy-five thousand dollars ($75,000) to our Red Cross Chapter in Decatur for the building of a garage for all of our vehicles. Our chapter covers four (4) counties in Central Illinois, and we have six (6) vehicles that currently sit outside in the weather three hundred and sixty five (365) days a year and that is a problem. Our chapter responds to disasters within our four (4) county area and each one of those disasters… each one of those disaster responses starts with our volunteers gathering at our chapter and loading the supplies and the forms that we need into our emergency response vehicle, which we call our ERV, to go out to the disaster. Most of the disasters that we respond to are fires. Last year we responded to about seventy (70) local fires, so more than one a week. Most of those fires take place in the middle of the winter and for some reason, most of them seem to take place in the middle of the night. And if we have to respond to that disaster, that fire, with the 09500152c.doc 69  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 family standing on the sidewalk waiting for us to come and give them something warm to drink and something warm to put around their shoulders and provide the other shelter and emergency needs that they need, every minute counts. And if we have to spend an extra fifteen (15) to thirty (30) minutes scraping ice and snow off of our vehicle before we can get out there to help those people, that's a significant concern. The most vivid illustration of why we need a garage for our vehicles took place last December first. When, some of you may recall, the historic ice- storm hit central Illinois and Decatur in particular, over fifty thousand (50,000) Ameren/IP customers were without power. We arrived at our chapter that morning ready to respond and the community needed a prompt, thorough, efficient response from the Red Cross, and we spent the first hour and a half, literally scrapping and chopping about three quarters of an inch of glaze ice off of all of our vehicles before we could even get a door open of those vehicles to get the… to get the engines started and the defroster running. It cut down significantly on our response time and it was… it was… it was tragic. So, for that and many other reasons it's just good business to have your vehicles parked in a garage. We've had some problems with vandalism for our vehicles as well. But I think the emergency response time is… is the crucial reason why we need a garage for our emergency response vehicles for the Red Cross. If I may, while I have the microphone, I'd like to just speak very briefly to one other issue. The 09500152c.doc 70  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 Governor also eliminated a hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in funding to the Heart Saver Trust Fund, which would provide matching grants to schools, park districts, and other health facilities to purchase automated external defibrillators. And the Red Cross believes that this is also very significant legislation that we would like the House to consider overriding the Veto and restoring funding for. Thank you all very much for having us today."

"Good afternoon, honorable Members of the Assembly. My name is Danielle Shaw, I am a Policy Associate at Women Employed, and we are advocates for working women. An important piece of our work involves advocating for Illinois' lowest income college students, many of whom are adults working low-wage jobs while attending community colleges and working towards a better life for themselves, and their families, and their communities. Many of these students have been out of the system for awhile and, for a variety of reasons, need extra support in order to complete their studies. We wanted to make sure that you knew how the recent line-item Vetoes to the Illinois Community College Board budget what impact these working students from communities around the state. As many of you know, community colleges are open-door institutions and are often the most affordable higher-education option for our states' working class students. The recent Vetoes complete removal of the three million dollar ($3,000,000) student success 09500152c.doc 71  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 grant will deeply affect these colleges ability to continue to meet our students' needs. The student success grant provides increased academic support, it provides new… it provides training for advisors and counselors, special equipment for students with special needs, and many other essential services to disadvantaged students. Students have come to us time and time again and we've heard that without this tutoring, without this counseling, without these services, it would have been impossible for them to get up to speed and complete their course or finish school, or progress in any way. These services are not extras. Our students need these services. And with community college funding being cut or leveled year after year, they're relying increasingly on grants, like the student success grant, to provide our students with these services. This Legislature has shown a very real commitment to providing access to education by continuing to explore ways to adequately fund need-based financial aid programs, like the Monetary Award Program, but access is only half of the picture. We also need to create a system that supports students and being able to start what they fini… to finish what they start once they get their foot in the door. We… with good reason, we've invested a significant amount in these students and we believe it should be a priority to complete this investment. We hope you share our priority and will restore funding to the students success grant. Thank you." 09500152c.doc 72  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Alonzo."

"Okay. Good afternoon. My name is Adam Alonzo from Corazon Community Services in Cicero. Mark Ballard was sixteen (16) years old and was gunned down in front of his friends. Mark Ballard was in his community, he was playing with his friend's house, hanging out with them. It's normal, you're a teenager, you hang out with your friends, it's appropriate. A car drove up, shot him twice, he died within minutes. Mark Ballard's father was released from prison only a year before that for gang-related and drug- related charges. I'm sure he didn't know that his life would put his son on the same path of destruction that his life once was on. Mark Ballard's father vowed to take action against the shooters. He vowed, in the same way that his son was gunned down, to make sure that it happened to the shooter. CeaseFire was able to step in, talk with the father, talk with his mother, talk with his grandmother who helped raise Mark from the time he was little, while her son was behind bars. We made an impact in one father's life who is grieving over the loss of his son. The difference in the mother and a grandmother's lives whose hearts have been broken forever because Mark Ballard's father came to me and said, 'I will not take action against the people who killed my son because today the community 09500152c.doc 73  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 showed they cared. Today in Cicero, I feel like there is a family, people who care about my son, who care about us, who care about the nonsense and the violence that happens to young people in town.' CeaseFire has made an impact in one family's life and that's one story. For those of you who don't know Cicero, Cicero has eighty-seven thousand (87,000) residents, thirty thousand (30,000) of those are young people under the age of eighteen (18). We have a lot of young people in Cicero. How the Veto impacts our agency: two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) for our CeaseFire Program cut, a hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) for our youth center cut. That's four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000), two-thirds of our agency's budget. We feel it, the community feels it, our young people feel it. The next day after the cuts were announced we delivered one hundred (100) letters here written by the youth of Cicero to the Governor's Office. And only days later, with our State Representative, Lisa Hernandez, delivered almost two thousand (2,000) letters to the Governor's Office with representatives from the community. We're not pork. Kids are invaluable. That's our future. And when these cuts are made it strikes not just one family, it strikes a community. So we absolutely are against every single cut that has impacted, not just our agency, not just our community, but my fellow colleagues here at this table who are experiencing the same deficit. And so we ask for full and total restoration of the funding so that Mark Ballard's story does not have to 09500152c.doc 74  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 be another story. So that when I come back I'm not testifying that there's been another shooting, I'm not testifying on behalf of another father, another mother, another grandmother who grieves every day. I want to come back and say, 'You know what, thank you for your hard work. Thank you that my vote counted and that you're here doing great things for our communities.' That's the report I want to give you. I want to give you all the great things that our young people are doing. Not the sad facts, not the sad reports. I want to come back with success and victory. Thank you."

"Yes. My name is Jeff Bartow. I'm the Executive Director of the Southwest Organizing Project in Chicago. I'm here as well to talk about the urgency of restoring funding to CeaseFire. In our community, since we've had CeaseFire outreach workers in place, shootings have dropped of 60 percent. In the early 2000's we had more than sixty (60) shootings a year in the beats where we have outreach workers. Today those numbers are in the low twenties. I can best get at most briefly the impact of CeaseFire by sharing two stories. The first involves a young man named Jose, a member of a street organization. A CeaseFire outreach worker spent about a year before really beginning to build a strong trusting relationship. Over the course of the next two years, Jose has received his GED, he's now 09500152c.doc 75  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 in college, is working a full-time job. He's also now engaged in moving other young people out of the street life. Each of the CeaseFire outreach workers is engaged in an ongoing basis with at least fifteen (15) at-risk individuals. In our community that means seventy-five (75) people had a relationship, at least with a CeaseFire outreach worker that, at this point, has been suspended. The second story involves my next door neighbor, a young man named Tony. About three (3) years ago Tony was killed in gun… a gun… a shooting. And after the initial response of neighbors coming together, almost as soon as that happened, there was silence on the street, children no longer played outside, For Sale signs went up. I tell this story because this is typical of what happens when a shooting takes place. It's terrible for the family but it affects everyone in the block… everyone in the area. I'm sure many of you know this. Over the course of the next year and a half, a CeaseFire outreach worker was deliberate in his ongoing efforts to stay connected with this family. And the mother of the family slowly became active again in the community and a corresponding change has happened on the block which is really crucial to another part of the work CeaseFire does. They have provided leadership in terms of reconnecting families, in terms of giving people inspiration to take the risks that need to be taken to reach out to our young people. And they have the credibility and have demonstrated they have the credibility 09500152c.doc 76  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 to dramatically reduce the number of shootings that take place in our communities. Thank you very much."

"My name is Nic Kalogeresis, I am a program officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. I am here to represent the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Landmarks Illinois, the state-wide historic preservation organization on behalf of the Illinois Main Street Program. We are here also on behalf of seventy (70) Illinois Main Street communities from Rockford, Illinois to Golconda, Illinois to Lockport, Illinois to Rock Island, Illinois. We are here to urge the House of Representatives to override the Governor's Veto of two hundred and four thousand dollars ($204,000) of opportunity… opportunity returns funding to fund three (3) staff positions of the Illinois Historic Preservation… Preservation Agency, which provides design assistance services to the seventy (70) Illinois Main Street communities. As you may know, Illinois Main Street is one 09500152c.doc 77  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 of the most effective economic development programs in the State of Illinois. Nationwide the Illinoi… the Main Street Program has leveraged over nine billion dollars ($9,000,000,000) in reinvestment in historic downtown commercial districts. In Illinois since 1993 when the Main Street Program was established by Lt. Governor Bob Kustra, over five hund… over… excuse me, four hundred and eleven million dollars ($411,000,000) have been reinvested in our historic commercial districts. Illinois Main Street is a proven economic development program for our downtown districts. As we all know, downtowns are the center of our commerce in our communities. They are important economic engines for the State of Illinois. Illinois Main Street is the only economic development program that is offered by the state to help our downtown historic commercial districts. Since 1993, design assistant services have been provided by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as part of the Illinois Main Street Program to assist downtown property owners rehabilitate their historic commercial buildings. This service, which is currently provided by three (3) very talented and hardworking design staff, architects, have worked with over six hundred (600) property owners to help them understand how to rehabilitate their buildings, how to reuse them for small businesses, and how to make them attractive for our downtown districts. If you walk along downtown Springfield and see some of the work that has happened here, some of the buildings that have been adaptively used and wonderfully restored, that 09500152c.doc 78  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 has been the result of three (3) design architects with the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. In this year alone, they have worked with one hundred twenty-four (124) property owners in downtown commercial districts across the state with a value over one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in… one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in value if these property owners had to go to the private sector to receive these services. Small communities across the State of Illinois do not have access to qualified architects, nor the financial resources to pay for architects to come and deliver these services. These services are provided effectively… and effectively with the three (3) design staff that are currently housed in the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. They are some of the most talented people that I have met. We have worked with these architects in other states across the country to deliver design assistance services. They have done a well… good job in their communities and deserve to have this funding restored for the coming year. Many communities of the seventy (70) Illinois Main Street communities…"

"They have benefited tremendously from this service. If this service is not restored, they will not have access to any architectural staff or professional consultation to help them restore their commercial buildings. It is a unique program and it needs to be retained. And I urge this House of Representatives to 09500152c.doc 79  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 override the Governor's Veto and to restore the opportunities return funding to the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Thank you."

"That's correct."

"Thank you. My name is Donette Nailor and I'm here with Mr. Scott Estes to speak to you on behalf of the Standards Align Classroom Project. The Standards Align Classroom Project is an initiative that has been developed and implemented through the regional offices of education and the intermediate service centers in the State of Illinois. I am a consultant for professional development in the regional office serving Winnebago, Bloom, McHenry, and DeKalb counties and have worked with the state-wide project for the past six (6) years as a coordinator, trainer, and coach. The primary focus of Standards Align Classroom is to provide professional learning to help classroom teachers inv… imbed the Illinois State Learning Standards into their day-to-day instruction, teaching, learning, and assessment at the classroom level, where the rubber meets the road. Teachers participating in this project learn a way to incorporate those… the state learning standards into their daily lesson plans. Standards form the basis of our educational system, and assessment of all students as to their level of mastery of those standards, forms the basis for accountability for 09500152c.doc 80  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 schools in the State of Illinois. We need to provide all teachers with the tools and processes they need to use those standards as effectively as possible. Learning for the teachers in this project takes place over a school year in the form of collaboration with colleagues on a school- based team assisted by an outside coach assigned to meet with the team on a regular basis. Standards Align Classroom is the only state-wide project to use this collaborative, job imbedded process to address implementation of state learning standards at the classroom level. Standards Align Classroom has been researched extensively by the University of Illinois, Michigan State University, and MetroTech, an outside educational research firm. All research found higher levels of student achievement in classrooms where teachers participated in the project. After six (6) years of highly successful implementation of this project with approximately nine thousand (9,000) teachers and thousands of students positively impacted by the project, funds have been cut out of the budget. For the past six (6) years the budget… the Standards Align Classroom budget has been included in the Illinois State Board of Education budget with a variety of departments at ISBE contributing the needed funds to make up the Standards Align Classroom budget. This year for the first time Standards Align Classroom was presented as a stand alone line item in the budget with 1.4 million dollars ($1,400,000) requested. As a result, it appeared to be a new program and was vetoed by the Governor. The 09500152c.doc 81  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 best way to hear about the impact of Standards Align Classroom is to hear from those that have actually been a part of the project. At this time I would like to introduce to you, Mr. Scott Estes, principal of Glendale School in East Peoria."

"My name is Scott Estes and I am the principal of Glendale Elementary School in East Peoria, District 86. It's a pleasure to be here and I want to speak on behalf of the Standards Align Classroom initiative. Standards Align Classroom is true to its name, it brings state standards in alignment with what teachers are actually doing in the classroom and helps them to develop authentic assessments which are frequently given to be able to guide instruction. We want students to be able to learn through assessment processes rather than having assessment of learning. In my building alone we've seen great success with this program. As Mrs. Nailor alluded to, this was written down in our state budget as a stand alone item; however, because it appeared to be new money it was vetoed and I would ask the Representatives to please override this Veto and keep this very important program to empower our teachers and help our students. Thank you." 09500152c.doc 82  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Mitch Broski, Kenneth Young Center. We are… I represent a community mental health in senior service center and suburban Chicago. I'm here just to say that the Veto for us affects real people in real time. I represent three thousand (3,000) mental health clients and five thousand five hundred (5,500) senior clients and one of the things that was cut was the member initiative not for buildings or something like that, but actually to supplement the service that we provide for seniors to keep them out of nursing home care and in the community. The second thing that was cut as part of it, is… was an obscure line that has to do with helping organizations that are having a difficulty with mental health clients in terms of transition to fee-for-service, to help those that will lose money… accommodate to and be able to serve those clients. One of the things that you see with hospitals is that when you serve people with only a Medicaid rate it's very, very difficult to maintain that. The way hospitals do that is to see people with insurance and we do that too, but the new rule stipulates that we have to reduce… any money we get from insurance we actually have to get is reduced from the Medicaid rate. So if it's hard to make it on a Medicaid rate, it's impossible to make it when it's reduced. The Veto has impact on real people in this state and in my community. Thanks." 09500152c.doc 83  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"My name is Dawn Marie Galtieri. I'm the founder and the Executive Director of Voice of the City. We're an arts alliance that builds community through making art and teaching art. I'd like to thank Representative Berrios for her constant and undying work in our community in Logan Square. And for Representative Osterman that invited me to be here. I think he invited me to be here because I have the courage to say 'pissed off' in a public meeting and he thought that that would be good to bring to you today. In the face of such devastating cuts, it's difficult to advocate for the arts. That was said to me by a member of the Illinois Arts Council and it is difficult in the face of such devastating cuts to advocate for the arts, but I'm going to try to do that today. Voice of the City is a small arts alliance in the Logan Square community that builds community through making art and teaching art and we do that through building partnerships with local institutions creating… making art and teaching art opportunities that give those opportunities to Chicago artists across Chicago. Our organization is small and growing and we're in a process where we're actually moving and renovating. And so in order to shore up our programming we went to our Representative, Toni Berrios, and asked for a special grant to make sure that our programs were just stabilized through this little transition. Our programs do not rely on state funding for 09500152c.doc 84  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 all of these making art and teaching art programs, we just asked for a grant and she said, yes. The second way we were impacted is because we're one of the many arts organizations that are funded by the Illinois Arts Council. We are growing and we anticipated a 25 percent increase in funding this year. We actually received notice that we will have that funding cut by 50 percent based on last years numbers. We were anticipating 25 percent increase, a 50 percent decrease, plus the 25 that we were expecting. That's huge. Thirdly, we had a project that then when we were working on for five (5) years trying to put together a video project that would work with gang members, with our partner organization of alliance of local service organizations that has the CeaseFire program. Everything was in place. We had the teachers. We had the funding from after school matters. And what happened? The entire CeaseFire budget was cut. That wasn't something that we anticipated. When we teach our teens, we teach them three (3) things: We teach them to show up. We teach them to participate a hundred percent. And we teach them to respect themselves and others. I'd like to thank this House for showing up. I sat through a four-hour public meeting and was treated with the utmost of respect. I was one the last people to talk, so I know that they hung in there. You guys sat through a long, long process with the Senate and passed a bipartisan budget. I thank you for that. I thank you for showing up and I thank you for participating and doing the work and passing a bipartisan 09500152c.doc 85  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 budget. Thank you. When it comes to respect in this process, I don't know where it is. Where are… where’s the pork? Where's the hint of pet project? I have not seen it. But what I have seen is the insult to the people that are working in the trenches. These are people that do not make a lot of money. To call them 'pork' and to call their projects 'pet projects' is a slur. It is deeply, deeply insulting. And you know what, you were insulted too. Because I know that my Representative never knew her member initiative money was even threatened. And she never got a phone call and she never got a letter. That's insulting. It's disrespectful. And I'd like to look every person in the eye today and say, 'I'm really sorry.' That shouldn't happen. I not only ask you to restore the August 10 budget, I ask you to restore respect to this process, and I will commit to you, as an arts leader in my community, that I will show up and I will participate a hundred percent. If it's at meetings, if it's coming down to Springfield, if it's learning more of what it takes to actually know how to handle the issues that you're facing, I will show up. But I urge you, I urge you to restore respect to this process. You deserve it, I deserve it, and the people of this state deserve it. Thank you."

"Thank you. Tony Paulauski, Executive Director of The ARC of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, Leader Cross, Members of the House of Representatives, it's a great honor for me to be here today. I appreciate your leadership and advocacy on the behalf of people with developmental disabilities and their families. Because of your leadership, there are new services available to people on the waiting list the first time in five (5) years. Because of your leadership, there's a wage increase and a cost of doing business increase for community programs, the first in two (2) years. Thank you. Recent Vetoes to budgeted services for people with developmental disabilities will have a major impact to those individuals, their families, and staff who support them. My estimate is that about 60.4 million dollars ($60,400,000) has been vetoed from developmental disability community services. The ARC respects the Governor's leadership on important health care initiatives which are vital to infants, and children, and adults with 09500152c.doc 87  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 developmental disabilities, but not at the expense of vital community services. We need your leadership again. The ARC of Illinois respectfully requests that all Members of the House of Representatives vote to override these Vetoes. Disability committees and appropriation committees have already been given line items by me regarding these Vetoes, so I don't have to go into that here. These Vetoes, however, fund services to people with developmental disabilities. In the great State of Illinois, we should already be able to support community services and ensure comprehensive health care. We can and should do both. Lastly, people with disabilities are transit dependent. They need a long-term funding solution for mass transit and para-transit services for their communities so that they can become employed and remain in their community. Please override these Vetoes and thank you for your support."

"Thank you. My name is Frank Anselmo, and I'm the CEO of the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association which represents over ninety (90) community behavioral health care providers throughout the state. You will know these providers as your local community health and substance abuse providers that provide prevention and care for children and adults with mental and substance abuse disorders. I want to thank the Speaker and Leader Cross and all the Representatives for the opportunity to add our 09500152c.doc 88  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 voice to the requests I'm sure you've heard today, to override the Governor's Veto. I'm going to be very brief in my remarks. The Governor's Veto hurts fifty-six hundred (5,600) children and individuals with mental and substance abuse disorders by cutting off increase state support for community health care. The Veto further cuts funds that were meant to support current health care treatment of chronic mental illness and substance abuse recovery after years of state revenue growth, we question this financial policy and raise the issue of why indigent behavioral healthcare is not considered health care. In your community, as you well know, mothers need your help, the children need your help, and communities need your help to maintain these vital services. So in conclusion, I would like… respectfully request an override of the Governor's Veto actions and specifically the eight million dollars ($8,000,000) of funding designated for community mental health and the over six million dollars ($6,000,000) for community care providers assisting individuals recovering from alcohol and substance abuse disorders. I hope you favorably consider this request. Thank you."

"My name is Sara Moscato Howe, and I am CEO of the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association. I would like to express my appreciation for being asked to come before you today to talk about the important issue of addiction treatment. IADA represents more than fifty (50) 09500152c.doc 89  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 community-based organizations and two hundred (200) individuals who are professionals in the arenas of prevention, treatment, and recovery services in Illinois. I am here today on their behalf to ask that you vote to override the Governor's Veto of a 3 percent cost of doing business increase for substance abuse treatment providers, which equates to 6.6 million dollars ($6,600,000). For many addiction treatment agencies across the state it is a struggle to make ends meet at a time when a cost of providing services continues to increase. For example in July, minimum wage employees by law received an 11.6 percent increase in… percent pay increase. That increase created the need to increase other employees wage accordingly in Fiscal Year 2007. That 11.6 percent increase will equate to a 26.9 percent increase over the next three (3) years. While we fully support a living wage, there is no increase in state contracts to cover these costs. This is just one example of the dilemmas providers face as they strive to provide treatment services to those who need it. Providers are often forced to choose between keeping the lights on and paying their staff a living wage or treating those in need who come through the doors. This dilemma will force youth and adults onto longer and longer waiting lists. The University of Illinois-Chicago recently noted that there are more than six thousand four hundred (6,400) individuals in the State of Illinois on a waiting list for treatment. With the Veto now, more people will be forced to wait longer for services 09500152c.doc 90  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 and that is a decision that cannot happen. We know when we treat somebody that it is clearly important to get them in as soon as possible. We respectfully ask that the General Assembly override the Veto. We ask for your support in the House, and anything that you can do to help with that. Thank you."

"My name is Carol Woziniewhski, I'm the Executive Director from Mental Health America of Illinois, formally the Mental Health Association in Illinois. I would like to thank Speaker Madigan, Minority Leader Cross, and Members of the House for the opportunity to speak this afternoon on behalf of persons with mental illnesses in Illinois. On behalf of Mental Health America of Illinois and the Mental Health Summit, we urge the legislature to reinstate the fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000) that Governor Blagojevich removed from the Fiscal Year 2008 budget in his Veto message on August 22, 2007. The Governor eliminated in their entirety the following appropriations: the sum of eight million dollars ($8,000,000) to cover the safety net for the provision of community mental health services during the transition to a fee-for-service funding system. The fee-for-service conversion is the biggest change in mental health services in the history of the state. Already staffs are being laid off and services cut across the state and providers are being told to terminate patient 09500152c.doc 91  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 care. In addition, the sum of six million six hundred and twenty thousand dollars ($6,620,000) to cover an increase in the cost of doing business for agencies providing substance abuse services. A cost of doing business increase is truly no increase at all. It simply allows an agency to keep up with inflation each year. Every year in which a cost of doing business increase is not met, it actually means a cut in services. In addition, there's been a 1 percent cut across the board to state mental health hospitals. We would like to once again urge the Legislature to override these Vetoes in addition to building in the 1 percent cuts for the state mental health hospitals. Thank you very much." Chairman Hannig: Thank you. And last in this panel before we go to questions and answers, I guess we have two individuals to speak, but I only have you budgeted for 3 minutes in total. So, why don't you announce yourself and then we'll proceed, ok?

"Hello, I'm Dr. Joseph Nyre. I'm a licensed clinical psychologist. I'm President and CEO of the Hope Institute for Children and Families and also on the faculty of both the University of Chicago and SIU School of Medicine. Mr. Speaker, Leader Cross, and Members of the Illinois House of Representatives, thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and for your consistent commitment to this underserved population. I come before you today as a program administrator, a psychologist, a clinical researcher, and a 09500152c.doc 92  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 professor. In these roles I work very closely with children, families, clinicians, researchers, and you, the Legislature, to improve the system of supports and services for children with autism and their families. Autism spectrum disorder is a significant disorder. It is a public health crisis. I'll shorten my remarks to indicate that the centers for disease controls have identified one (1) in every hundred and fifty (150) births is a child with autism. This means at least twenty-six thousand (26,000) children in Illinois have an autism spectrum disorder. Early identification and treatment is the key. If we can identify these children, find them treatment, their success will be remarkable. The research is very clear. When parents seek a diagnosis, the road is very bumpy and it's very difficult to find someone who can complete that diagnostic evaluation. Second, if they're one of the families that are lucky enough to receive the diagnosis, they move on into the community to try to find treatment. Once again, very difficult to find trained providers. If they are lucky enough to find a trained provider their insurance reimbursement is not in place. There are no insurance incentives. There is no mechanism for the family to receive reimbursement and it's a very difficult time for families. We have a plan here in Illinois. A plan that weighs twenty-seven (27) provider agencies and universities to impact sixteen thousand (16,000) families in this next year. Illinois has a vision and thanks to you it's poised to take action." 09500152c.doc 93  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Thank you. My name's Georgia Winson. I'm Director of Operations for the Autism Program. I'd like to make a few remarks about our plans for Fiscal Year '08. I understand this has been a historic year for the Illinois General Assembly. I can tell you it has been a historic year for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. This year the Autism Program led twenty (27) agencies and universities in convening a statewide network, the largest network in the country, to provide services to people with autism spectrum disorder. I can also tell you that this year this Body approved ten million dollars ($10,000,000) to fund this network. This would be twelve (12) regional centers, four (4) community outreach centers, and eleven (11) community visioning initiatives. You have demonstrated the political will to serve individuals with autism spectrum disorder in Illinois. I ask you to do whatever is necessary to override the Vetoes and fund services to this worthy and underserved population. Thank you."

"I'm sorry, Representative, I don't know that number. I'm sorry."

Tony Paulauski: "From my calculations for Developmental Disabilities, 60.4 million dollars ($60,400,000)."

"No, that was my best estimate on Developmental Disabilities only." 09500152c.doc 95  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"For community programs, yes."

Frank Anselmo: "Yeah. The cut for providers from the Department of Mental Health… that were funds allocated to the Department of Mental Health and to DASA, alcohol, substance abuse totaled a little over fourteen million dollars ($14,000,000)…"

Frank Anselmo: "…and it'll directly affect well over five thousand (5,000) children and adults."

"Sure. The eight million dollars ($8,000,000) really eliminated three (3) specific line items: 2.5 million ($2,500,000) in what is called 'safety net' funds in the appropriation Bill for mental health providers experiencing financial hardship, which really means they're 09500152c.doc 96  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 already in the process of laying staff off and closing their front doors. So, it's a safety net that's been eliminated. Two point five million ($2,500,000) for the conversion of fee-for-service and three million ($3,000,000) for paying mental health providers for Medicaid services above their total contract amount, which again, is for direct care of individuals who are Medicaid eligible. For mental health providers, sort of unique in the state, substitute providers also have the same limitations, providers contracts are limited to a contractual limit including a limit on Medicaid, so that three million dollars ($3,000,000) would… would prevent care to those specific individuals again closing the front door to hundreds of people."

"It's… it's certainly going… yes, it's going to eliminate care to, as I mentioned, to probably fifty-six hundred (5600) people."

"We've had two (2) cost-of-doing-business increases in the last seven (7) years."

"There's six thousand (6,000)… over six thousand four hundred (6,400) on the waiting list. From the time they call us to the time they get into services it's an average of thirty-two (32) days. So, by cutting this increase, the waiting list could certainly go up as well as the wait itself, the wait time will go up."

"Children and adults, yes."

"We very much appreciate that."

"Yes. I believe that the cuts and then the subsequent delays would reduce our figures by nine thousand (9,000) families. We had predicted we would affect sixteen thousand (16,000) families in its first year with full funding. I believe that we would affect nine thousand (9,000) less because of the cuts and I would like to mention a less tangible impact of the cuts. Representative Bellock, I know you, Representative Ryg, Coulson, Mulligan, and others have been very involved in building consensus in the autism community. I think one of our successes this year has to get these twenty-seven (27) agencies and universities onboard, moving in one direction. This… this is an accomplishment that we can't let pass."

"I can tell you that one of the things that we've done this year is build a comprehensive plan for program implementation and also for program monitoring and evaluation. Although our twenty-seven (27) agencies we're working with have been gracious enough to send their staff for training on their own dollar, they have not been able to jump in with both feet without funding. So, from a practical sense this has delayed our program evaluation and some of our implementation goals and if the funds are cut, it would significantly delay those and would allow us to work at a reduced strength in all of these communities."

"And real quickly, I think it hurts the consensus movement in the field which was so critical. We know that the Legislature told us last year, you all told us, build consensus and bring back the providers, the parents and the universities all on the same page and it was a long road, and we're pleased that we're here today with the providers, the parents and the universities on the same page. But by not fully funding it this year, I think it will destroy or significantly affect that consensus."

"Actually, there are six (6) states that have set the standard. Illinois would be in a leadership role, if we were to have the full funding for this appropriation. 09500152c.doc 100  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 The University of North Carolina in North Carolina has had a program for forty (40) years and as a result of that, they are the… they can claim that they have the largest percentage of individuals with autism that pay taxes. I would love to have our people with autism paying taxes in the future and supporting worthy programs such as this."

"Yes, absolutely. And you know, we have many parents… when our program began, we were a program for very young children and we have many parents that came onboard and supported us even though their child did not benefit from the changes implemented to our initial program. It's really time we honor all the parents in Illinois and support them."

"Yes. There were a hundred and twenty (120) group homes known as CILA, emergency placements that were a part of the original budget and that was cut out totally."

"Yeah."

"That is correct."

"No."

"Correct." 09500152c.doc 102  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Okay. I'm Dr. Christine Becker. Good afternoon, Speaker Madigan, Representative Flider, Representative Mitchell. Start again? Third time. Good afternoon, Speaker Madigan, Representative Flider, Representative Mitchell and distinguished Members of the House. I am Dr. Christine Becker, a chiropractic physician in private practice with my husband, Dr. Scott Becker, in Decatur, and I am the immediate past President of the Illinois Chiropractic Society. I am here this afternoon to protest the Governor's Veto of the bipartisan budget, which completely eliminates chiropractic coverage under Medicaid. The funding is eliminated on line 11 page 436 of House Bill 3866. It makes no sense to expand health care for the poor 09500152c.doc 103  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 by cutting health care for the poor. I voice opposition not for myself nor for my colleagues but for the Medicaid recipients. The two most common health complaints that people seek care for are: number 1) headaches and number 2) back pain both which are treated effectively in chiropractic offices. Chiropractic services has been an integral part of Medicaid care in Illinois for many years. The 1.7 million dollars ($1,700,000) that was included in the budget represents over one hundred ninety thousand (190,000) annual doctor visits at a cost to the state of only eight dollars and sixty-seven cents ($8.67) per visit. That's eight dollars sixty-seven cents ($8.67). Many of these patients do not have family physicians and with chiropractic eliminated will be forced to seek out extensive and expensive emergency room visits for these common complaints. Speaker Madigan, the Illinois Chiropractic Society supports your efforts to override the Governor's item Veto of the bipartisan budget. To eliminate chiropractic coverage under Medicaid makes no fiscal sense. To expand health care for the poor by cutting health care for the poor makes no common sense. Thank you for your attention."

"My name is Don Moss. I'm Executive Director of the United Cerebral Palsy of Illinois. I'm testifying on behalf of agencies and their direct care workers that provide services for the tens of thousands of children and adults with developmental disabilities throughout the state who are negatively affected by the budget reductions made 09500152c.doc 106  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 in Public Act 95-438. Out of the many reductions in the appropriations for either DD programs or Member initiatives, the cruelest cut of all is the eleven million (11,000,000) reduction in the cost-of-living adjustment for these nonprofit agencies and their direct service workers. Over the past ten (10) years, the agencies have received a total of 15.9 percent increases including the 1.8 percent left in the COLA line. The total consumer price index for the same period was 26.2 percent. The original two and a half percent COLA in House Bill 3866 was insufficient for agencies to come even close to catching up with the inflation due to the soaring costs in health insurance, energy and gasoline, and now a mandatory minimum wage increase. A 1 percent… a 1.8 percent increase is even more deficient. We implore the House, Senate and Governor to consider at least a 3 percent increase for FY 2008. My fervent hope is that some day in the future COLA for DD services will be tied to the consumer price index, so we don't have to fight with you every year as to what the increase should be. In addition, wheelchair lifts on vans, sprinkler systems in group homes, technology allowing individuals to communicate for the first time in their lives are typical of the Member initiatives that were eliminated from the budget because their legislative Sponsors belonged to the wrong chamber or wrong Party or who were not members of the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. As an advocate for persons with disabilities for now forty-five (45) years, I'm strongly in 09500152c.doc 107  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 support of adequate health care for all Illinois citizens, but it shouldn't be at the expense of other individuals in desperate needs of services nor of the agencies and the staff that provide these services. For these reasons, I strongly encourage your vote to override the Developmental Disabilities budget reductions and at very least, provide the moneys, not just to keep these crucial services going on but to keep them from going under."

"Good afternoon. My name is John Vrba and I'm the Senior Administrator at Humana Care in Hinsdale for the past fifteen (15) years, a facility serving two hundred (200) seniors and specializing in rehabilitation services."

"And my name is Suzanne Koenig and I'm the President of SAK Management Services, a national firm based in Illinois that owns and operates six (6) facilities that care for seven hundred and seventy (770) residents with the specialty in turning around financially troubled long-term care facilities."

"We are pleased to be here with you this afternoon representing our nearly one hundred thousand (100,000) employees and more than seventy thousand (70,000) residents we serve in Illinois nursing homes. We also serve about six thousand eight hundred (6,800) residents in intermediate care facilities for the developmentally 09500152c.doc 108  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 disabled and another seventy-two hundred (7200) folks in CILAs. We thank you for taking the time to listen to our comments. Our lobbyists come to you frequently to talk about the struggles we face daily in caring for our residents, but we welcome the opportunity to have you hear about things from us directly. We recognize that you have a lot of pressures and struggles and that there is never enough money to go around, but we'd ask a moment that you try to put yourself in our place as caregivers to the most vulnerable of seniors. Could you operate your household and businesses on the same dollars you each had in 1999. That is our challenge. Our facilities become home to our residents. We provide the building and yes, we have a mortgage payment, cover the utilities, medical supplies, three (3) meals a day and snacks. In short, all of the basic needs you need to provide for your family members at home. And we receive the same dollars today to provide those basic needs for our residents as we did in 1999. In addition to the housing and living expenses, we also provide twenty-four-hour skilled nursing care and extensive rehabilitation services for our residents three hundred and sixty-five (365) days a year. We do not close to our residents ever. You took a huge step for our residents in January of this year by providing the first funding for the new MDS reimbursement system, truly a joint effort between the General Assembly, long-term care professionals, and administration. This new system allows the reimbursement for nursing costs to follow the care needs of the resident. 09500152c.doc 109  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 The budget you passed this year contains additional funding to implement more of that system and for that we are eternally grateful. The increases you voted in support of our support rate, housing, utilities, wages, technology, and food, to say a few, will help cover the cost increases we have incurred since 1999. We have immense pressures on our ability to serve our residents. We have one of the lowest, if not the lowest, Medicaid rate in the country. We are responsible for complying with over three thousand (3,000) pages of regulations both state and federal level, and our regulatory environment has zero tolerance. We have to be superhuman. If we make one small mistake, even if it is just forgetting to document something, we face ever increasing fines and sanctions."

"Okay. Based on cost reports that we file each year it costs almost thirty dollars ($30) more a day to provide the care we deliver than we are reimbursed for caring for our Medicaid residents. Our facilities are not the rest homes in the past. We serve a much more medically complex population. Our system has been underfunded for more than fifteen (15) years, so I am supposed to be turning around troubled nursing homes and it's impossible to do it on 1999 dollars. The majority of our residents require services. I'm sure that this evening I'm staying in a hotel room for a hundred and three dol… ($103)… we got reimbursed a hundred and three dollars ($103) a day based 09500152c.doc 110  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 on the average. I'm staying in a hotel room tonight here in Springfield that is much more than that just for TV and a bed. So, just remember, for residents in long-term care and the community, it is our great desire that you please support us. Thank you."

"Medicaid matched funds, Representative Bellock?"

"Yes. Right now we're asking for a commitment from the Illinois and Federal Government of a hundred and fifty million dollars ($150,000,000). Fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) will go to the implementation of the MDS and a hundred million (100,000,000) for… are the capital and support."

"Well, currently, our… we're off of the 2004 cost report level, which gets us back to 1999. To go quickly to the chase, I just was out visiting my great grandmother in Ohio… my grandmother in Ohio, my kids' great grandmother, and had lunch with her. The rate for a Medicaid patient in 09500152c.doc 112  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 the State of Ohio is a hundred and forty dollars ($140) a day. Currently, in Illinois, we're a hundred and three (103). We're the fiftieth worst-based state."

"Yes. We are the number fiftieth state right now in Medicaid reimbursement and for myself, feeding my grandmother lunch in Ohio, I met the administrator and I said, 'So what is your rate here?' And I think his quote was 'a hundred and thirty-eight dollars ($138) a day', which I rounded up to one forty (140), and currently, in Illinois, we're at a hundred and three dollars ($103)."

"To me it makes absolutely no sense."

"In New York, it's two hundred dollars ($200)."

"East Coast, a hundred and seventy (170)…"

"Correct."

"No, it's… unfortunately, unpredictable and you can never know when you get paid. It's just whenever 09500152c.doc 113  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 there's money that goes to the Comptroller's Office. We are on our last leg all the time waiting from Medicaid payment to Medicaid payment."

"Yes. Eleven million (11,000,000) off of the twenty- nine million (29,000,000) that was geared for the COLA as passed by the House."

Don Moss: "Twenty-nine (29,000,000) down to nine… eighteen (18,000,000)."

"The eleven million (11,000,000) is what was cut or reduced…"

"…which brought the two and a half percent down to 1.8 percent."

"2.5 to 1.8."

"Yes, we do."

"Well, the problem is, is that in Illinois the average rate is a hundred and three dollars ($103), so it's all about, ya know, the reimbursement and it is an issue. So…"

"Right."

"Yes. There would be a match from the Federal Government if our rate were to increase or would it bring an influx of more dollars to care for us, which we believe needs to take place because we are the fiftieth ranked reimbursed Medicaid state."

"I think that people in long-term care deserve to be cared for. Ya know, they've spent all their years in helping the system and I think the continuity between the community and the long-term care environment, it goes hand in hand."

"Well, I was just saying that health care is a part of all of our work. We shouldn't be thrown a bone to scrap over in health care issues, and it's just unconscionable that we're put in that position."

Dr. Christine Becker: "Representative, I'm a chiropractic physician and chiropractic was the only health discipline that was completely eliminated in this budget Veto. We will not be able to service these patients at all."

"It was… Yes, it was."

"That is correct, Sir."

"Well, I just think that all of these people need the care and I think that, ya know, whatever we have, we have to provide the care to the elderly. And it's just so important that people don't forget that one day all of 09500152c.doc 118  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 you will be elderly, too. And that's a sad thing to have to think about because we're going to need that care."

"Thank you, Representative. One segment of the Medicaid recipients I did not mention is the expected mother and chiropractic is a very safe and drugless way to treat expectant mothers who are experiencing back pain as a result of their pregnancy. We will no longer be able to care for them. Thank you."

"Three minutes. Yes, Sir."

"You bet."

"Thanks distinguished Members of the House of Representatives. I'm Pastor Frederick Aigner, President and CEO of Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, honored to be here today. Serve lots of people, a hundred and eighty (180) programs in seventy-five (75) sites. Last year served sixty-five thousand six hundred and thirty-seven (65,637). We're Lutheran by name but 97 percent of the people we served were nonLutheran. So, we began as an organization that served its own, but have moved into a partnership with the state and the provision of services for all people, all Illinois residents who meet the eligibility requirements of access to such services. Proud to be a part of that human care delivery system and have been for many, many years. Since the state turned to the private sector a generation ago to partner in the care of people, literally hundreds of thousands of children, women, and men have gained access to the kind of supportive services they required to live up to their potential. But for more than a decade now the human care delivery system in Illinois has been suffering from underfunding, even during the late '90s when the State Treasury was plush. While the cost of most things in our society has increased, the number of dollars in the state budget devoted to human services has decreased when adjusted for inflation. As you know, we're asked to provide at a high level and without increases and that constitutes an unfunded mandate. I think the key point here I'm trying to say is this is not a partisan issue. Governors of both Parties have proposed 09500152c.doc 120  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 budgets that seriously underfunded human services. Neither is this a Legislative versus Executive Branch issue. In the current context, it is important to point out that although Governor Blagojevich's numerous reductions and line item Vetoes have removed a few positive advances for human services, the budget as passed by the Illinois General Assembly in August was a long way from providing adequate funding for human services. From our prospective the Governor's Vetoes made a bad budget worse. Restoring human service funding in areas like mental health, substance abuse, and developmental disabilities that were cut by the Governor in his Vetoes is not a panacea but it is a significant indicator to the rest of the world, not to mention the citizens of the State of Illinois, that we're going to move in the direction of giving greater priority to the people in need in this state. It's not partisan, not legislative versus executive. It is not Senate versus House; this is a moral issue. What kind of a state do we want to live in? So, I urge you to override the Governor's line item Vetoes especially those programs intended to strengthen the pubic/private safety net for people in need. Budgets continue to be moral documents as we know. We're one of the wealthiest states, yet we're one of the lowest in the care of provision. So, thank God, in that sense, for I guess it is Mississippi and Louisiana, they keep us from being at the bottom. We pray every year for each of you by name in the rotunda, we did this past April. We're grateful and give thanks to God for your service, which is 09500152c.doc 121  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 a hard thing to do, and we're grateful for you. We want you to know that we continue to be a strong and faithful partner on your behalf and we'll want to continue to be that in the provision of services. I hope we can count on you and your side as well. Thanks for the opportunity to testify."

"Yes, Sir."

"Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Greg Chance. I have the pleasure of serving as a public health administrator for the Knox County Health Department in Galesburg, Illinois. However, today, I'm pleased to be representing as the public policy and legislative chairperson for the Illinois Rural Health Association. The Illinois Rural Health Association provides a statewide public voice for individuals and organizations committed to improving the health status of rural Illinois residents. As part of its mission, the Illinois Rural Health Association has focused on current activities on a number of critical factors that we believe affects the health status of Illinois rural residents. These areas include: rural emergency medical services, rural access to mental health services, rural primary health care services for the un- and underinsured as well as rural access to oral health services. Subsequently, the Illinois Rural Health 09500152c.doc 122  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 Association is extremely concerned about the negative impact of the Governor's Amendatory Veto that eliminates or reduces funding proposed for rural health initiatives along these areas. For example, one of the proposed cuts is the elimination of three million dollars ($3,000,000) for the expansion of school-based health centers, a program administered by the Department of Human Services. The existing school-based health center program in rural Illinois has an established track record of successfully reaching at-risk youth with comprehensive primary health care services, mental health counseling services as well as disease management programs. It is the association's understanding that due to this proposed budget cut, programs planned for Murphysboro as well as Herrin will not be established or may not be established at those locations. Additionally, as you've heard, the Governor has proposed to veto one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) from the Heartsaver Trust Fund within the Department of Public Health budget. This funding is intended to provide matching grants to public entities to facilitate the installation of automated external defibrillators, which are mandated to be in schools by 2009. This funding is critical for our small, rural public school districts. As previously indicated, the Illinois Rural Health Association continues to attempt to identify strategies that addresses the dilemma of limited access to oral health services in rural Illinois. One of the predominate factors that influences this access dilemma is the limited number of 09500152c.doc 123  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 dentists willing to provide services to the Medicaid population. One solution to this challenge is the establishment of safety net dental clinics to provide preventative and restorative services. However, the Governor has eliminated the proposed nine hundred thousand dollar ($900,000) expansion proposal, which was intended to establish dental services in local public health departments. Without this funding support, very few local public health departments have the resources necessary to develop the infrastructure to create such a safety net dental clinic. Another critical factor influencing access to health care services in rural Illinois is the limited number of professionals willing…"

Greg Chance: "In closing, in June of '07 Senate Joint Resolution 53 passed both Houses of the General Assembly. This Resolution outlined a number of initiatives that this Body as well as the Senate approved funding for. And so, we appreciate that fact and we would hope that you'd reinstate those funding initiatives that the Governor has vetoed. Thank you."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House. I'm Howard Peters and I thank you on behalf of hospitals everywhere in Illinois for allowing us to 09500152c.doc 124  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 participate on… in your proceedings. Many hospitals, as you know, Mr. Speaker, are from an economic prospective financially fragile. Two-thirds of them lose money on patient care. They sometimes struggle to make payroll, and they are challenged to find the essential resources to invest in new and emerging technology as they endeavor to provide high quality accessible care to the communities that they serve. It is important for me, also, to say though, Mr. Speaker, that working with this General Assembly and with the Governor, we have in some instances found effective ways of addressing some of these problems. The Illinois Hospital Assessment is an excellent example of such a successful effort. Indeed, we are hopeful that during the current Veto Session you will pass a supplemental which would allow the 2008 hospital assessment to go forward. But one area, Mr. Speaker, that continues to burden hospitals is the payment cycle. When the state pays less than it costs to deliver the care and pays late, there is real harm to the health care delivery system. And so, we had hoped that the Medicaid liability would be fully funded. The department had estimated that this would take about two hundred and fifty million ($250,000,000) additional dollars. When the General Assembly sent the budget to the Governor, it contained a hundred and fifty- eight (158) additional dollars in the hospital line and the Governor then reduced it by forty million ($40,000,000). This will further exacerbate the payment cycle problem. Hospitals are reporting, some of them, that they are 09500152c.doc 125  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 waiting a hundred and twenty (120) days for payment. And so, our request is that you would restore the forty million dollars ($40,000,000) that was cut and… by overriding the Governor's action. At the same time, it's important to say, Mr. Speaker, that the Governor's interest in providing health care to those without coverage is a…not only a good idea, it's the right idea and it's the right thing to do. And so, it continues to be our hope that the General Assembly and the Governor will together develop a plan to provide coverage for the growing numbers of uninsured in our state. Today, there are about one million eight hundred thousand (1,800,000) such individuals and we really do need to do something about this growing problem. In the meantime, however, it is important that the state would pay providers who provide service and pay them in a reasonable time. The restoration of this forty million (40,000,000) is the… is the right step in that direction. Again, thank you for allowing us to participate in your proceedings."

"My name is Janet Stover and I'm the Executive Director of the Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities. IARF serves more than ninety (90) community agencies that serve persons with disabilities and mental illness across Illinois. When we first heard that 45.4 million dollars ($45,400,000) plus local projects had been vetoed from the FY '08 Department of Human Services budget, it was disheartening to say the least. It is unreasonable 09500152c.doc 126  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 that 10 percent of the four hundred and sixty-three million dollars ($463,000,000) cut by the Governor came from community disability services and support. Since the spring of 2006, the association has been delivering the message that you can't talk about health care, education, jobs and housing without talking about human services and yet, here we are taking money away from current health care and human services for people with disabilities and mental illness to pay for expanded health care. Without the full… without money for the full two and a half percent cost of doing business increase that was included by the General Assembly, 54 percent of community agencies say they will be forced to close or reduce services and programs, 66 percent say they will reduce options for consumer choices about day service activities, 65 percent say they will be forced to consolidate staff positions overworking already underpaid staff, 84 percent say they will be forced to leave positions vacant reducing their ability to maintain the same levels of service, 85 percent say they will not be able to provide increases for staff. Some will be forced to take all of the above actions. Service is our business. Helping people achieve their potential, the greatest investment in seeing individuals achieve their goals is the ability of agenc… organizations to attract and maintain qualified and caring staff. Staff, who support individuals who are more severely disabled with significant behavioral challenges. Other reductions include five million (5,000,000) in the base for grants for… and purchase of 09500152c.doc 127  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 care for DD services. There are more than one hundred and twenty (120) people throughout the State of Illinois who need CILA services on an emergency basis in this current fiscal year. Because of inadequate funding, staff and the division of DD will manage that by delaying approval of these services. It is currently taking ten (10) months or more for an individual who needs emergency residential placement to receive approval for services to begin. The other way the division has managed the delay is by delaying payments to DD long-term care providers. If that is the plan for this year, it will be further compromised by the five million (5,000,000) reduction to the DD long-term care line. The only out time… outcome of that will be even further delays in Medicaid payments to organizations that are already desperate as they try to manage cash while maintaining services. For mental health providers, the only good news in the budget is it was passed by the General Assembly was the inclusion of eight…"

"Okay. The presenter from Ray Graham spoke to you a little while ago about the cost of full implementation of the budget to taxpayers, a penny a day. If reductions in Vetoes to community services are not restored, I fear it will be penny wise but pound foolish. I ask you to embrace our Have a Heart campaign to restore the reductions and cuts to community services for 09500152c.doc 128  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 individuals with disabilities and mental illness and those who serve them. Thank you."

"Yes."

"What I would say, Representative, is that we, too, were glad to see the announcement that women who needed breast and cervical cancer examinations would get those examinations and the treatment that they need. It would be our hope that once rules are written by the department that they will, in fact, include men who need those services in the rulemaking process as well."

"I would say that there is an office of men's health within the Illinois Department of Public Health, but unfortunately resources haven't been dedicated to that particular office to further explore not only the breast cancer issue in males but prostate cancer, other health- related issues specific to males that don't have the opportunity to take… and then the dilemma is, that we've already indicated, if those males can't access health care because their low income or uninsured, then that's a dilemma as well."

"And Representative, to your point about persons who are homeless, but it may also have mental illnesses, I would say that I think community organizations have done an incredible job of trying to coordinate resources so that they can maximize the resources that they do have. But with those cuts that have been made by the Governor to this budget after they were increased by the General Assembly, it only speaks to the necessary point that without those resources people will go unserved. There is limited capacity in the community and that limited capacity is not because of their interest in serving, but is because they 09500152c.doc 132  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 cannot provide quality state care without additional resources."

"Correct."

Howard Peters: "Representative, hospitals really are the cornerstone of health care delivery in this state."

"Correct."

"Yes, Sir."

"Correct."

"Yes."

"Yes, Representative, I think you heard earlier that the program that funds the emergency CILAs for persons with developmental disabilities was cut below the FY '07 level."

"Representative, I do have to take exception to that in this way. The Governor's originally… original budget had, as I recall, two hundred and fifty million (250,000,000) in addition for hospitals to cover the Medicaid liability… the growth in the Medicaid liability. The General Assembly sent him a budget with a hundred and fifty-eight million (158,000,000) addition. So, it was below what the Governor had ori… originally requested and then the Governor cut that by an additional forty million (40,000,000)."

"Yes."

"That's correct."

"Yes."

Joanna Webb-Gauvin: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Joanna Webb-Gauvin. I'm the Legislative Director for AFSCME Council 31. State employees protect abused children, identify criminals through DNA testing, guard state prisons, steward our natural resources, care for the severely disabled and the list goes on, but our State Government is in crisis. Over the past six (6) years, State Government has lost thirteen thousand (13,000) employees, over 20 percent of the workforce. There's a continuing crisis of understaffing in State Government which undermines the delivery of vital services to Illinois citizens. With the support of the General Assembly, eleven hundred and twenty-five (1125) new positions were added in the FY '08 budget. The new po… staff would not have solved all the problems relating to understaffing, but it was a giant step in the right direction. The Governor's Veto of over thirty-five million dollars ($35,000,000) in staff funding, ten million (10,000,000) more than what was 09500152c.doc 136  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 initially added, makes a horrible situation much worse. Staffing levels for frontline workers at DHS mental health centers are down 30 percent. In the developmental centers, they are 18 percent below '01 levels. Poor staffing practices have placed nearly every Illinois state developmental center in danger of losing its federal Medicaid funding. The Governor's cut staffing by two and a half million (2,500,000) from DD centers and three million (3,000,000) from mental health centers. DHS community offices are places where people go to get off of welfare, to find help with substance abuse, or child care, and if you are the working poor with no insurance, a place where you can get your kids some health care. The caseloads have nearly doubled with fewer workers and more applicants. The result is that families who come there for help experience lengthy delays in getting services and yet the Veto's cut two million dollars ($2,000,000) in staffing. At Corrections, prison staff was cut by nearly sixteen hundred (1600) positions. There were no sexual assaults or hostage takings of staff members by inmates for years, but there were three last year. These incidents happened in areas where security staff had been either removed or greatly reduced. At Big Muddy, an inmate crushed another inmate's skull killing him some thirty (30) feet away from where a sergeant's post had been eliminated due to short staffing. Despite all of this, the Governor's cut nine million (9,000,000) from this agency. A separate department of juvenile justice was established in '06 to give youth a 09500152c.doc 137  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 better access to education, counseling and training that could help them get their lives back on track and despite these full promises, the situation at the youth centers has actually gotten worse. Most centers lack enough staff… teaching staff to provide a full day of school. Violence has increased dramatically with one facility documenting a hundred to twenty… a hundred and twenty-six (126) violent incidents in a three month period. Vetoes cut more than two million (2,000,000) in staffing from this project. Other vital services provided by DCFS, DNR, State Police and other agencies have been greatly damaged by these Vetoes. The state is also responsible for providing quality services for people with developmental disabilities and fair pay for workers who provide those services…"

"You know, the state has the… an obligation to provide, to me, it's basic mandates to its citizens and in order for the state to be able to do this these cuts need to be restored. And we respectfully ask your support for the Motion to Override the Governor on these Vetoes. Thank you."

"My name is Steve Preckwinkle. I'm the Political Director for the Illinois Federation of Teachers speaking here today on behalf of our ninety thousand 09500152c.doc 138  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 (90,000) members, here to encourage the House to override the Governor's budget Vetoes of House Bill 3866 in the current state budget. IFT has much at stake in this… in this Veto override of the Governor's four hundred and sixty-three million dollars ($463,000,000) in Veto cuts, nearly a hundred million (100,000,000) affected elementary and secondary schools and our community colleges and universities. That along with no 'bimp' Bill at present time is causing real financial stress for many of our schools. IFT is not supporting the restoration of the Vetoes because we disagree with the Governor's health care initiatives, indeed the IFT is very sensitive to the Governor's goals but we… we of Illinois must first financially support our pro… current programs before we begin new initiatives. Let me concentrate, since this is the State Government Panel, on our twenty-five hundred (2500) members who are state workers under several Constitutional Offices. Conditions are poor at the State Board of Education where we represent the professional staff. In the past twelve (12) years, the State Board of Education has lost nearly five hundred (500) positions. For FY 2008, the state board requested four and a half million dollars ($4,500,000) to restore a mere sixty-eight (68) positions. Your final budget authorized a million dollar ($1,000,000) increase, but even that modest figure was cut in half by the Governor's Veto. This funding must be restored if the State Board of Education is to be counted on to get its work done on a timely basis and in a 09500152c.doc 139  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 professional manner. In addition, the IFT was notified just this past weekend that twenty (20) career employees of the Department of Military Affairs will be laid off as that department seeks to privatize those services. The reason given for the layoffs: lack of funds. Finally, I would ask that you think about the budget picture as a whole in a state that fails to fund schools, cuts state services, faces amount of debt of some hundred and six billion dollars ($106,000,000,000). Much of this data has accumulated in the last ten (10) years because this General Assembly has done little to reform our state revenue system. In 1997 this chamber passed a modest income tax increase to improve education funding and to address the state's financial health. Not one person who voted for that Bill failed to return two (2) years later, but that Bill did not become law and the problems have continued to get much, much worse. Whether you lean conservative or more liberal, that is very hard to justify. The conservative argument fails because you're forcing billions of dollars on to future generations of Illinois citizens and more liberal members should not support the status quo because services are eroding for our most needy citizens. The support for public education remains at the lowest level and in all but one of the fifty (50) states. Leadership involves tough decisions. The Governor offered a plan this spring that was rejected; the ball is now in your court. It's time to make the tough decision to pass a moderate funding reform plan for State Government that pays 09500152c.doc 140  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 for public schools and other state services. When you have the will to do that, I believe you'll find substantial support from both the business and labor communities in the State of Illinois because we both know the result of your continued inaction. That is no longer acceptable no matter how you view it in our estimation. Thank you."

"Yes. Hello. I'm Joe Neri. I'm the Vice President of the Illinois Facilities Fund. Since the formation in 1990, by philanthropic entities, the nonprofit, Illinois Facilities Fund's mission and challenge has been to provide capital exclusively to nonprofit organizations serving low income and special needs populations and implementing state public policy goals and mandates. The IFF's primary purpose is to make long term, capacity building, below market facility loans to nonprofit corporations. The IFF has made over five hundred and fifty (550) loans to over three hundred (300) different organizations totaling a hundred and sixty million dollars ($160,000,000) and it's helped agencies plan and develop eighty-five million dollars ($85,000,000) of nonprofit owned real estate. The IFF is often the key lender in critical facility project in low-income communities which would simply not happen if it wasn't… if… without IFF support. In the last year, the IFF has been a key lender in the number of vital, new, community health clinics in places like Harvey, Aurora, 09500152c.doc 141  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 South Chicago and Alexander County; all of which would not have been possible without IFF loans that filled funding gaps. A perfect example of such lending was a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar ($750,000) to Family Christian Health Center in Harvey that leveraged a two million dollar ($2,000,000) loan from a private bank, but more importantly would not have been possible without the IFF using its flexibility and taking the extra risk to make the mortgage happen. The 3.5 million dollar ($3,500,000) funding that the Governor cut is to… was to be leveraged and expanded to be used to increase funding for long term, below market loans to support progressive practices in housing and services for special populations supported by the State of Illinois. As Illinois begins to expand community-based solutions in housing and health care, many of the projects detailed in early testimony, the IFF funds will once again be available, flexible, and affordable to support the capital investment needed to acquire, improve, and renovate those housing and other facilities to implement this important public policy shift. The IFF has a long history of supporting agencies serving special populations making over sixty-five (65) loans for supportive housing throughout the state. This new work has already begun with loans to Marc Center in Bloomington- Normal and to the developmental services center in Champaign County that provides small community-based housing for persons with developmental disabilities. The state support that was cut to the IFF has significant 09500152c.doc 142  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 impact beyond the small investment which the IFF leverages many times over. Each million dollars ($1,000,000) in aid leverages additional twelve million dollars ($12,000,000) in other funds initially and over thirty-six million dollars ($36,000,000) over the life of the loan. These funds make vital projects happen. Thank you."

Joanna Webb-Gauvin: "The last… the last time we were in appropriations committee the… the department recognized that they had three hundred and sixty-nine (369) fewer correctional officers than they had at this… at that point last year and that was back in… in July. I'm not sure if… what the total vacancies of that was… just where… we're down from one year to the next, I don't know what the total vacancies are."

"No, we weren't." 09500152c.doc 143  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Well, they would have to start in academy and it would depend upon how big of a cadet class that they would allow which the sizes have shrunk as each year passes. I think the class is six weeks, but I'm not certain on that. I'll have to get back to you. But, you know, it's not like could say, in the Department of Corrections, we're going to give you five hundred (500) new staff and they could go out the next day and hire five hundred (500) new staff. They would have to do that in waves. They…"

"…through the academy, right."

"Right."

"Yeah. What… what you will see in the overtime numbers is that in 2001, which is we'll be used as the benchmark, the overtime numbers were right around twelve million (12,000,000) for the Department of Corrections and it's… it's creeped up ever since then and 09500152c.doc 144  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 we're over twenty million dollars ($20,000,000) for overtime."

Joanna Webb-Gauvin: "Over twenty million… million dollars ($20,000,000) for the year and the problem with that is that, you know, not… you're wearing the staff down, the morale is low, the staff gets tired and when you have a lot of mandated overtime and tired employees, there's more room for error."

"Right. You'll never fully eliminate it, but you will significantly reduce it and it's just a better public policy to use that money for more staff so that you had a well-rested staff, a more alert staff in the correctional facility so that public safety is maintained."

Joanna Webb-Gauvin: "Illinois has the worst inmate-to-staff ratio in the Midwest."

"The worst in the Midwest. Nationally, I think we're somewhere towards the… we're in the middle somewhere, but in the low end." 09500152c.doc 145  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Yes."

Joanna Webb-Gauvin: "Yes, it is. And despite what the department says, you know, the department will tell you that violence isn't up but you look at the numbers, the facts speak for themselves. You had two violent sexual assaults in the last year. You had a hostage-taking situation last year. And we don't talk about those because they're the most gruesome incidents to talk about. We talk about those because they're directly related to staff. All of those incidents, including the murder… inmate-on-inmate murder at Big Muddy, they're all related to positions that were filled previously but that were eliminated because they didn't have enough staff to fill those positions."

"I can't… I can't give you the specifics because some facilities were cut in the Department of Corrections and some weren't. When we used to… went to the department to talk about the impact of the Vetoes, they were not able to tell us because what they say is that they're still waiting to hear from the Governor's Office what the impact on each facility is going to be. But what we do know, in the past where one facility has received a cut and the other hasn't, in the end they're all going to receive cuts because DOC, in order to make this work, is going to have to move money around from facility to facility. So, if you've got a facility in your district that maybe didn't see a reduction in the… in the Veto, you can look for a reduction 'cause at some point they're going to have to move the money around."

"Not to my knowledge, but I'll get back to you for certain."

"It is certainly the state's obligation and one thing that our union has been doing in the past several years is to highly perfect that the children within the Department of Juvenile Justice are not reserving… receiving the services that they are entitled to, the services that they need and that they deserve whether it be counseling or education, and we have reports in some of the facilities where the kids are sitting in the library because they do not have enough educational staff to actually be… be giving instructions to these children."

"And the question is? Do they… do they see that? The teachers absolutely are not, ya know, I mean they're aware of what has been cut and what hasn't been cut, but in terms of the, ya know, in terms of the net effect, it's… ya know, their concern is for their students, trying to get the job done on very limited resources in many cases spending a great deal out-of-pocket, ya know, money in addition to what the state and their school district, ya know, provides. So, ya know, for the most part they're not going to be aware of whose project's on JCAR or anyone elses were cut. What they care about is what is transmitted to the classroom and it's a serious problem in almost every area of the state."

"No."

"They haven't come to AFSCME although we wish that they would because our members are on the frontline. Ya know, they provide these services. They work in these departments. They know what needs to get done and they know how to make government run more efficiently, but they have not."

"Well, there are other… I mean, because of the contract they're forced to talk to us about other things through standing committees and labor management, but when it comes time to talk about, ya know, where we could save money and how we could make government run more efficiently, they do not… they do not seek our advice."

"I would say… It would be fair to say that, no, for the most part they have not; although, we've given it unsolicited."

"The IFT has had numerous discussions with representatives of the administration over what the budget priorities for education, spending increases and program changes, I would be able… it would be a fair statement to say that we had… we had ongoing meetings through most of the… at least the regular part of the spring, ya know, Session, not so much discussion over the revenue sources but certainly in terms of the spending allocations and programmatic changes, yes."

"I believe so in terms of his proposals and the budget with respect to increases for mentoring. Ya know, programs… I don't have this list in front of me… but there were a number of suggestions that we made as priorities for the IFT that were certainly embedded in the original, ya know, budget proposal put forward by the Governor, yes."

"No, I'm…"

"Thank you. My name is Zack Wichmann. I am the Associate Director for Education at the Catholic Conference of Illinois and a board member of the Illinois Coalition of Nonpublic Schools. I'm here today representing Illinois's five hundred and eleven (511) Catholic schools and nearly twelve hundred (1200) nonpublic schools. Together these schools educate over two hundred and fifty- seven thousand (257,000) of Illinois's children and by doing so they save the State of Illinois nearly one point five billion dollars ($1,500,000,000) every year. The State of Illinois has a significant history of supporting nonpublic schools. In 1975, the state adopted the Illinois Textbook Loan Program which provides textbooks to public and nonpublic schools. In 1986, the state created the Parent Transportation Reimbursement Program, which provides reimbursements to parents of the public and nonpublic 09500152c.doc 152  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 students who are not offered bus service. In 1999, Illinois enacted a five hundred dollar ($500) tax credit for tuition, book, and lab fees. And in 2003, the State Board of Education was required to provide a comprehensive state recognition process for nonpublic schools. These were all important and wholly appropriate steps to take in support of the education of all Illinois's children and in this year's fiscal year '08 budget more was agreed to. A significant funding increase was added to the Parent Transportation Reimbursement Program at recognition of the increasing costs of transportation and the curtailing of school district busing for nonpublic school students. Certainly, helping the parents of public and nonpublic school students get their children to school when busing is not available cannot be defined as a pork program. Even more troubling was the Governor's Veto of 10.1 million dollars ($10,100,000) to the education improvement and school safety block grant. This money was intended to add nonpublic schools to the block grant without any adverse affect on the grants aid to public schools. For many years the General Assembly and the Governor have enacted various health and safety mandates on nonpublic schools without providing any resources to help pay for these mandates. These mandates include but are not limited to: requiring fingerprint-based FBI background checks; the purchase and maintenance of automated external defibrillators; the design and review of school crisis plans; new food and nutritional standards; school safety drills; and a litany 09500152c.doc 153  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 of required physical, dental and vision screenings for students. As a representative of nonpublic schools, I can tell you we have not opposed the bulk of these mandates and believe they are good and necessary ideas, but they cost money. Money many of our schools do not have. Accordingly, we have advocated for the opening of the school safety block grant to help at least partially fund the implementation of these mandates. Let me be clear. The money nonpublic schools receive from the block grant would only be used to fund measures that improve and ensure the health and safety of children in the school. I believe the state has an interest and responsibility in that respect. The General Assembly agrees every time they pass one of these mandates and they agree the state should also help fund these mandates by including the money in the fiscal year '08 budget. Apparently the Governor feels differently, that is a shame, and I ask you to correct his mistake by voting to override the Vetoes recognizing that nonpublic school parents are taxpayers and that the health and safety of their children are important. Thank you for your time."

"Good afternoon. I'm Elizabeth Evans. I'm the Executive Director of the Illinois Network of Charter Public Schools. I represent the thirty-seven (37) charter public schools that are serving almost twenty thousand 09500152c.doc 154  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 (20,000) public school students throughout the State of Illinois. We know that every child deserves a chance for success, and we know that every teacher deserves a chance to create new paths for leadership and make their contribution to excellence in education in the 21st century. Charter public schools are a proven effective tool in public education, and Illinois is a trendsetter for setting the highest standards for quality and accountability in charter public school education. As a result of that, there are at least ten thousand (10,000) students waiting to get into charter public schools and almost fifty (50) schools outside the City of Chicago waiting to be opened. That's why during the course of this General Assembly Session, you voted to appropriate 3.5 million dollars ($3,500,000) in start-up funding to charter public schools in Illinois. And that money will serve as a companion to the over ten million dollars ($10,000,000) that INCS has… collaborated with the Illinois State Board of Education to attract from the Federal Government for new charter public schools in our state. Unfortunately, those 3.5 million dollar ($3,500,000) funds were cut by gubernatorial Veto and now thirty-five (35) schools serving over fourteen thousand (14,000) students are facing a hundred to a hundred and fifty thousand dollar ($100,000 to $150,000) gap in their operating funds. Charters are built on two simple principles: accountability directly to the public and high-quality education… public education by choice. There are all kinds of opportunities that we are 09500152c.doc 155  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 missing throughout the State of Illinois to bring new excellent models of public education, community-driven models, and teacher-driven models to public schools. That's why we have forged partnerships with the Illinois Education Association, with the State Board of Education, and with other civic and community leaders in cities such as Rockford, Pekin, Waukegan, and in the south suburbs of Chicago to bring more choice for more children because a choice in education shouldn't be based just on where you live or the color of your skin or the amount of money your parents earn. Choice should be available to every teacher and every student. That's why I ask you to override the Governor's Veto and restore the 3.5 million dollars ($3,500,000) in start-up funding that you appropriated and that the Illinois State Board of Education recommended. Thank you."

"Yes, thank you."

"My name is Brad Baker. I'm Dean of Libraries at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and currently the President of the Illinois Libraries Association, an organization with more than three thousand (3,000) members. I am here today speaking on behalf of the entire Illinois library community. For the first time in twelve (12) years, the Illinois General Assembly approved full funding for public library per capita grants. The state is 09500152c.doc 156  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 obligated to provide funding to public libraries through grants equaling a dollar twenty-five ($1.25) per resident served. House Bill 3866 included an appropriation sufficient to meet the state's obligation to provide funding to public libraries. However, in the Governor's Vetoes of House Bill 3866, he reduced the per capita grants by one million dollars ($1,000,000). This reduction is a budget cut affecting every one of the six hundred and thirty-three (633) public libraries in the state. While our public libraries are forced to rely mostly on local property taxes, state funding from per capita grants is absolutely necessary to purchase materials, update facilities and equipment and provide vital services. The Governor's Veto denies public libraries the money that the state has promised to provide public libraries and once again short changes the residents of this state. This money is not for some special interest group. These funds are used by public libraries to help Illinois residents get the information and services they need related to work, education, and even their personal health. I am here today to urge the Illinois General Assembly to override the Governor's cut in library per capita grants and to restore the funding to the level required by law. In addition to per capita funding, the Governor vetoed many grants to individual libraries that are struggling to finish capital projects, offer services, and frankly, sometimes just to keep the doors open. One example of the many individual projects vetoed was access to an important database of 09500152c.doc 157  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 health care information accessible to all Illinois citizens. I would especially like to thank Representative Lou Lang for being a proponent of this particular program. These cuts are especially hard in light of the fact that state funding for Illinois libraries has been slashed over the last seven (7) years. Since fiscal year 2000, funding for the Illinois State Library has been reduced by 22 percent, a loss of almost nineteen million dollars ($19,000,000). Since fiscal year 2000 as well, funding for Illinois regional library systems has been reduced by 17.7 percent, a loss of almost four million dollars ($4,000,000). The Illinois library community realizes that there have been some though economic times in these years and along with many others, libraries have been willing to share the sacrifice. But it is extremely disheartening to see new programs created while past library funding has not been restored and in fact, further cuts have been imposed. For all these reason we urge the Illinois General Assembly to override the Governor's cuts to library funding. Thank you."

"Well, I can give you samples, I think, is the best way to do it. For instance, the FBI background checks were… just passed this year, are fifty dollars ($50) a person for every employee in the school. AEDs, which our schools are now required to have, cost anywhere between eleven hundred ($1100) and three thousand dollars ($3,000). Of course, we have to train the staff in their usage and maintain 'em. The real expense comes in, ya know, fire prevention, sprinkler systems, fire doors, a lot of our schools are really old buildings. They're required by the State Fire Marshals and other local fire departments to update 'em and that costs a lot of money. Other things include all the health immunizations and examinations, we have to have school nurses… or nurses and doctors come into our schools and do those kind of examinations, those aren't free. So, there's a lot of different costs. I can't quantify how much for every student every year, but it'll be more than we're reimbursed."

"Right."

Zach Wichmann: "Sure, if we got the 10.1 million dollars ($10,100,000) and the school safety grant was open to nonpublic schools, we would get roughly thirty-five dollars ($35) a student per year."

Elizabeth Evans: "Sure. The charter start-up money is available as schools open and ramp up. They often start with not a full load of grades, but they need to have all of the teachers, all of the curriculum, the full building in place, so the per capita costs are greater in the first several years. So, the 3.5 million dollars ($3,500,000) is divide… granted directly to the schools from the state of two hundred and fifty dollars ($250) per year for the first term of the charter which is usually five (5) years and it helps to even out that ramp up costs if schools get up to full enrollment capacity."

"Sure. I mean, the design of the school and the beginning of the school is almost critical to predicting its ultimate success. You have to have trained teachers. You have to have a clear vision. You have to have a culture in place, and you have to have leadership that's going to enforce that culture from the very first day. So, the time that you spend planning the school and 09500152c.doc 160  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 opening the school is an incredibly important predictor of your long-term success with the school. That's why things like turnaround schools tend to be difficult to do because it's hard to fix broken cultures. You've gotta get it right from the beginning."

"The main cut that I mentioned off the top was into the per capita funding for Illinois public libraries. That's a program of about sixteen million dollars ($16,000,000). If it was funded at the level it's been authorized to be funded at, it would be at seventeen million ($17,000,000) and that was passed this year and then the Governor vetoed that extra million dollars. Now, seventeen million is, even at that level, is not a great deal of money and when you think about the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by public libraries. But I do want to reinforce that is in itself underscores the fact that the state does not do much for our public libraries and that money is very important especially to smaller less well-funded public libraries around the state."

"It… it varies considerably. I'm… I'm an academic librarian, but I've been going around visiting a lot of public libraries. It definitely… it does vary based on the wealth of the community. We have some absolutely fabulous public libraries around the state and we have some that are, frankly, very pathetically funded and really do struggle to keep their doors open. And I would certainly underscore that these per capita grants, I know, are extremely important to them."

"Well, the evidence is not in yet completely, but each of those schools is in the process of making difficult decisions about where to reallocate resources, working with the Chicago public schools to see if they can 09500152c.doc 162  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 get some extra resources to fill that… part of that start- up gap and look into the private sector to fill that gap. Because, you're right, these start-up resources are critical for setting up those foundations which include health and safety of the children and the teachers in the schools." Davis, M.: "I know Betty Chavez is, I think, they have a new high school and now they're going to have another elementary school and of course, this… these multiple sites perhaps are much needed, but I think we have to make sure that they do have the adequate dollars to fix up any buildings they plan to go into or use. So, thank you very much for that information."

"Thank you." Davis, M.: "In reference to the cuts in the education budget, could someone expound on the most significant ones?"

"Well, I imagine we all think ours are very significant. I would argue that the 10.1 million (10,100,000) cuts to the education school safety block grant is particularly impactable in that it's designed to maintain the health and safety of the children in the schools and without that money it'll be hard for us to meet those mandates." Davis, M.: "So, it's ten million ($10,000,000) for the health and safety of the schools?"

"Yeah. That's to reimburse schools for health and safety mandates, right." 09500152c.doc 163  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"I think that's true, Representative, yes."

"That's correct."

"That's right, only…"

"That's correct."

"Ten point one million (10,100,000)."

"That… that would have added all the nonpublic and parochial schools to the school safety block grant without harming the public school for reimbursement from that grant."

"No."

"That's correct."

"That's correct."

"That's correct."

"We met with the Governor's Office on several occasions throughout the spring. They always indicated support for the idea, but they did not call us back before they decided to amendatorily veto it, no." 09500152c.doc 165  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"It's very upsetting and patently untrue."

"That's correct."

"That's right. It's a database of information. I think the project originally was started from a grant. Health-E Illinois… Health-E Illinois is part of that and it is an attempt to provide free access to quality information for the citizens of Illinois through libraries."

"That's correct."

"That's correct. That's pretty upsetting to get light of the fact that the Illinois State Library has had significant cuts and they, too, through the library systems have subsidized other databases, information like that, community information, scholarly information, full text 09500152c.doc 166  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 resources for the citizens of Illinois and that's gradually being eroded and it's… it's quite upsetting."

"Absolutely not."

"Thank you."

"I'm Alice Jacobs, President of Danville Area Community College. And thank you for the opportunity to share with you the impact of budget cuts on Danville Area Community College and other community colleges. For the 09500152c.doc 167  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 last three (3) years, DACC has served eight thousand (8,000) students each year. More than 50 percent of undergraduate students are enrolled in community colleges across Illinois. My main purpose in addressing you this afternoon is to relate to you the hardship… the recent Vetoes to the state budget will create for my institution and this hardship is being repeated throughout Illinois in all of the community colleges in our state. The Veto completely removed three million (3,000,000) for the student success grant used for students who are academically, economically, or physically disadvantaged. The twenty-three thousand dollars ($23,000) provided last year to the DACC for the student success grant allowed us to provide much needed supportive services to at-risk students. As a result of the reinstatement of this grant, the college was able to provide essential technology for students with disabilities and add tutors to serve nearly six hundred (600) at-risk students served by our student support services department. At-risk students can succeed; they just need additional supportive services an area that is becoming more difficult with continued state cuts to funding. The student success grant helps very low-income students attain certificates and degrees. The Veto that cut seven million (7,000,000) in the community college basic operating grant was devastating to the DACC. The basic operating grant and student success grant Vetoes meant a cut of almost eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) to our college. Other colleges are also receiving substantial 09500152c.doc 168  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 cuts. At DACC the eighty thousand dollars ($80,000) could have been used to provide essential services for the many at-risk students who need a community college education so that they can earn a living wage. In fact, because of state cuts in funding since 2002, the DACC has been forced to raise tuition over 54 percent. If the college had not eliminated administrative and support staff positions during this time, it would have been necessary to increase tuition even more. What does this mean for students? It means that for many students they are being priced… higher education is being priced out of their reach. Lack of state funding continues to cause a strain. Our budget state funding has declined from 2002 to 2008 from four million (4,000,000) to 3.6 million (3,600,000). During the same time period, our employer costs for…"

"I'd just like to say that for that community colleges they are being funded this year at 1999 levels and at Danville Area Community College we are being funded, after the Vetoes, at 1996 levels."

"Good afternoon. My name is Andrea Steele and I'm a junior at the University of Illinois studying agricultural education. And I am here today representing 09500152c.doc 169  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 the University of Illinois extension and the state 4-H program. And today I'm here to ask you to override the Governor's Veto and restore the money to the 4-H Youth Development Educators line in the budget. I became a 4-H member at the age of eight-years-old and for the last twelve (12) years my life has been continually impacted by the 4-H program, specifically the people who are involved in 4-H. I can remember back to my very first county fair and my local extension 4-H youth development educator helping me find my way to all of the different check-in stations as I excitedly brought in my 4-H projects. As I grew older, 4-H became a bigger and bigger part of my life and I soon realized that its impact would reach far beyond an afterschool meeting every month. I began to attend state events and discovered that 4-H was a statewide support network. I learned that the 4-H program was a lot more than just my small club. I found my best friends in mentors in 4-H and I also learned that it was an environment that enables me to grow and develop. As I became a member of the Illinois State 4-H Youth Leadership Team, I met even more friends and had the opportunity myself to impact the youth of Illinois. If I hadn't had the ten (10) years of experience in 4-H, I would not have been able to do this. The programs offered by 4-H and led by 4-H youth development educators reach thousands of youth and adult volunteers every year in Illinois. They have the power to get youth to get up and move, a program that teaches healthy lifestyles to youth, and encourages them to 09500152c.doc 170  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 have fun while exercising. 4-H has reached into the future by developing programs in science and technology that are teaching youth new and innovative programming and giving them the opportunity to stretch their minds. Being a 4-H youth development educator is more than just having a title, it is enriching youths' lives, training and educating adult volunteers, and impacting thousands of people across the state with service projects, educational workshops, and caring hearts. 4-H has reached beyond its roots and is elevating youth to new standards of excellence in all fields from crops and animals to public speaking and journalism to aerospace and computer science. No matter what a youth's interests are 4-H has a place for them. If the youth of Illinois lose these 4-H youth development educators, their world of opportunity gets smaller and smaller. Please restore the money to the 4-H youth development educator line in the budget. The youth of Illinois are depending on it. Thank you."

"Sure. Thank you. My name is Mark Denzler, Vice President of Governmental Affairs for the Illinois Manufacturers Association. The IMA is a statewide business association representing four thousand (4,000) companies across the state. These are the companies that employ nearly seven hundred thousand (700,000) Illinois workers across the state from Fortune 50 companies to small mom and pop shops in every corner of the state. And we're here 09500152c.doc 171  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 today to talk about the Employer Training Investment Program, ETIP. For years the level of funding has been roughly twenty million dollars ($20,000,000). This year the Governor chose to reduce funding by about five million dollars ($5,000,000). What that means is that average year ten to fifteen thousand (10,000 to 15,000) Illinois workers will not get the necessary training that they need to remain competitive in today's workforce. With due respect, I'm going to let the words of Governor Blagojevich and DCEO director Jack Lavin speak about the program. As the Governor said, 'There are no better investments the state can make than invest in advancing the skills of the Illinois work force. By keeping the Illinois workforce strong we help make Illinois businesses more efficient and more effective.' And DCEO director Jack Lavin, 'The employer training investment program provides critical resources to local businesses to train their workers in cutting edge technology and deliver those resources on demand. Investments like these are key to building a world-class workforce in Illinois that acts as a vigorous engine of economic growth in job creation.' All you have to do is go on Google, search Governor Blagojevich and ETIP and you will see page after page of press releases issued by the Governor talking about how we saved five hundred and seventy-five (575) jobs at an oil refinery in southeast Illinois or we created six hundred (600) new jobs at a steel manufacturer or we created fourteen (14) new jobs at a furniture manufacturer in the northwest suburbs. This is 09500152c.doc 172  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 an important program. It impacts tens of thousands of workers and these workers, I might add, that make fifty-two thousand dollars ($52,000) annually, sixty-four thousand ($64,000) on average with benefits. These are good high- paying jobs that we need to keep in the State of Illinois and we hope that you would overturn the Governor's actions and keep this funding at the level funding. Thank you."

"Yes, that's true."

"And our enrollment has increased since that time as well."

"I can't really tell you the percentage, but we're serving almost twice as many individuals as… since 1996. However, we are funded as you know on the credit hours that we generate, but that's true for… for all Illinois community colleges. There has been certainly an enrollment increase since 1999."

"Yes, that is true and we…"

"That's right. We're certainly grateful for that… for that amount, but we really do need that seven million dollars ($7,000,000)."

"Well, it certainly seems to me that we… I know that we desperately need the three million dollars ($3,000,000) so that we can assist students with 09500152c.doc 174  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 disabilities. They do need additional and sometimes expensive supportive services, but they can learn and they can be productive citizens."

"Thank you."

Andrea Steele: "There's twenty-nine (29) different youth development educators that will be cut and that… it spans over forty-seven (47) different counties in Illinois."

"I don't believe it would eliminate the 4-H program, but the 4-H youth development educators are the driving engine behind the 4-H program. They coordinate all the county activities. They look over the program books for all the 4-H youth. They volunteer their time. They drive the service activities that touch thousands of people across Illinois." 09500152c.doc 175  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Actually, it would cut three different youth development educators from Cook County alone. And Illi… and Illinois 4-H is actually the largest youth development organization in Cook County."

"I think we'd be putting those youth in a lot of jeopardy just because this is an afterschool program that they can really go to and they get to meet people from all across the state and they get to see new ways of life as well as sharing their own opinions and diversity throughout the state."

"Well, last year at Danville Area Community College we received twenty-three thousand dollars ($23,000) as a result of that grant and so we were able to buy special technology that students with disabilities need. We were also able to invest in more tutors for at-risk 09500152c.doc 176  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 students, but we provide tutoring, we provide note takers, we provide…" Davis, M.: "Okay. I… I saw a graph and the graph showed, first of all, that a number of students who were not going to college or those who perhaps were going to four (4)-year institutions were choosing two-year colleges now because of the cost of tuition at some of the other places. So, I'm sure that helps to add to your increase in your enrollment. And we also saw a graph that shows as the state contribution to our city colleges or community colleges decreases, the tuition increases as well as the property tax. Is that correct?"

Dr. Alice Jacobs: "Yes. It… At Danville Area Community College over the last… from 2002 to 2008 we, unfortunately, have had to increase tuition 54 percent." Davis, M.: "And these students are surely not those who could afford such an increase?"

"Especially independent students, students who are working, many are working full-time. They simply don't have the resources to pay even as… even though our tuition is lower. It really is pricing students out of the higher… out of higher education." Davis, M.: "So, when we talk about education in the State of Illinois and we talk about the dropout rate and then we talk about reentering these students into an educational…"

"I agree with you."

"I'm not sure of the exact figure, but I know it is a lower amount."

"Yes, that's my understanding."

"That I'm not sure about. He certainly… certainly, there was no discussion with individual colleges."

"No, Sir."

"Absolutely. Thank you, Representative Lang. One of the biggest challenges that our companies face are hiring qualified individuals and I think a reduction in education funding hurts disability students to be able to graduate and compete in today's marketplace."

"Absolutely, because if they don't come to us, we have to pay more money out of an employer's bottom line to provide that training." 09500152c.doc 179  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"It is. The Governor's introduced level was the same as it was last year and his reduction now is about 25 percent less, which means about ten to fifteen thousand (10 to 15,000) Illinois workers, many of them union members, will not receive the training they need."

"Good evening. Good evening. My name is Ra Joy and I serve as Executive Director of the Illinois Arts Alliance, our statewide arts advocacy organization. The Illinois Arts Alliance represents over two thousand five hundred (2,500) arts organizations, artists, and individuals who care deeply about the quality of life in Illinois. I'm here today to say on behalf of the arts and cultural sector 09500152c.doc 180  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 statewide that we are deeply concerned about the devastating impact the Governor's Veto budget will have on the arts and arts education in Illinois. The Governor's budget calls for a seven million dollar ($7,000,000) cut to the Illinois Arts Council. This will represent the largest percentage decrease in the council's forty-two-year history. The Veto budget also completely eliminates important funding for the arts and foreign language grant program at the Illinois State Board of Education. Our cultural assets, our museums, theaters, dance companies, and libraries are one of our state's greatest strengths. Artists and cultural organizations attract new investments and new residents and serve as an important catalyst for economic growth in communities throughout the state. Drastic cuts at this level will threaten the stability of the arts field and will mean less art in our schools and neighborhoods, less symphonies, plays, paintings, song, and dance. While this reduction will have a devastating impact on the entire non-profit arts field, small to midsize arts organizations that depend upon council funding to keep the lights on, pay their employees, and help meet their bottom line will likely be impacted the most if the Governor's budget is not reversed. Furthermore, the proposed cuts will jeopardize Illinois's reputation as a state that values creativity and fosters innovation. If the budget cuts take affect, Illinois will spend less per capital on the arts in FY '08 then much smaller states like Oklahoma and Mississippi spent on the arts last year. This would be 09500152c.doc 181  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 a huge step backwards for the State of Illinois. The arts are essential… an essential component of a quality education and help prepare young people to compete and succeed in the global economy. Study after study reveals that students who are engaged in the arts earn better grades, perform better on standardized tests, and are less likely to drop out of school. The arts also serve as an important catalyst for community development and stimulate the kind of creative capital that our region needs to stay competitive. State support for the arts is not a luxury. It's a smart investment in the cultural, educational, and economic growth of Illinois. We urge Governor Blagojevich, Senate President Emil Jones, and state lawmakers to restore funding for the arts and arts education to the budget levels approved by the General Assembly on August 10, 2007. On behalf of the Illinois Arts Alliance, I thank you for the opportunity to appear before you tonight. Thank you."

"Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Scott Triphahn, I'm the Chairman of the Board of the Illinois Association of Park Districts. I'm also a commissioner on the Hoffman Estates Park District. I'm currently serving as their board president. I'd really like to thank Speaker Madigan and all of you on behalf of the IAPD for this opportunity to testify before the Committee of the Whole. The Governor's Veto affects park districts, forest preserves, conservation, and special recreation agencies in 09500152c.doc 182  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 many ways, but I would like to focus on the following four. The first has to do with the Veto of a hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in funding from the Heart Savers AED Trust Fund, which was created to help local governments acquire AEDs on a matching grant basis. Our members are on the frontline of providing AED in recreational settings and I will tell you that we have saved lives with the use of these AEDs. The Heart Saver Trust Fund has made this possible. The second area I would like to discuss addresses cuts to… made to services of special recreations associations in Illinois. These agencies provide services to Illinois' disabled population on a multi-community and park district basis. A few examples of cuts to SRAs include: the West Suburban Special Recreation Association, which is in its thirty-first year of providing recreation programs and events to residents with disabilities from nine (9) park districts and two (2) villages. In 2006, the Western Suburban Special Recreation Association provided recreation to nine hundred and fifty-five (955) individuals with disabilities. These individuals ranged in age from two (2) to ninety-four (94) years old. The WSSRA maintains a fleet of six (6) vehicles. In order to maintain their safety record, they replace these vehicles every five (5) years. In 2008, the WSSRA will have ninety-five thousand dollars ($95,000) in vehicle replacement costs. The twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) in funds that is cut from this budget would have assisted in replacing one (1) vehicle. Without these funds the WSSRA will still continue to 09500152c.doc 183  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 provide transportation as it is essential, but will cut back in their programming and operational dollars, which will result in approximately fifty-five (55) less people served. The North Suburban Special Recreation Association is an intergovernmental partnership of ten (10) park districts and three (3) municipalities in the northern suburbs formed in 1970 to provide recreation programs for residents who have disabilities. Only 28 percent of adults with disabilities obtain gainful employment. That means seventy-two thousand… 72 percent are at home looking for other programs and services. NSSRA developed with an area not-for-profit a program called Enriched Lifestyles for Adults. This is a quality of life program emphasizing fitness and recreation, communication skills, independence, and community awareness. Like most programs with… for people with disabilities the ELA is a staff intensive. The NSSRA was shocked to hear that they lost a hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) in grants…"

"The… In conclusion, as our urban areas experience exponential prop… growth in population numbers of all age groups and of all diversity increasing the ability of parks can support opportunities for healthy lifestyles, access to safe and well-maintained parks, can encourage neighborhood utilization, create livable neighborhoods, and help to facilitate increased rates of physical activity. Thank you." 09500152c.doc 184  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"It was a hundred thousand dollars ($100,000)."

"Thank you."

"There were very many items cut, and I don't have the whole list with me 'cause there were a bunch of them. Most 09500152c.doc 185  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 of the… most of the grants for park districts were under a hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) and several of them were for items such as you're talking about. We'll have our general counsel, Peter Murphy, get you that list of the handicapped accessibility items by this time tomorrow."

"Thank you."

"Absolutely. Thank you, Representative Osterman. Support from the Illinois Arts Council provides important funding for… particularly for small to midsize nonprofit arts organizations. The council represents one of very few funding sources that provides general operating support. So, while we're concerned about the impact these cuts will have on the entire nonprofit arts field, we're particularly 09500152c.doc 186  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 concerned about the impact it will have to small to midsize theaters and museums and libraries and cultural organizations. Particularly those outside of Chicago that depend upon council support kind of as a validation of the importance of their work. And oftentimes groups outside of Cook County can't leverage those council dollars and go to corporations or foundations for additional support. In terms of the economic impact of the arts, it's no secret about what the arts mean to us in terms their ability to inspire us and to connect us. But we conducted a study very recently on the economic impact of the nonprofit arts in Chicago. And what our study revealed is that the arts mean big business in Chicago. The nonprofit arts industry in Chicago alone generates 1.1 billion dollars ($1,100,000,000) in economic activity every year. That's billion with a 'b'. It supports over thirty thousand (30,000) fulltime equivalent jobs. It delivers over a hundred and three million dollars ($103,000,000) in local and state tax revenues. So, the arts mean big business in Chicago and throughout the state. And you asked a question about the impact of arts on education. The Illinois Arts Alliance conducted the first statewide assessment of the arts in our public school system in 2005. And while 93 percent of the U.S. public believes that the arts are what's missing in a quality education, our study revealed that 20 percent of principals reported having zero arts instruction in their school. They're young people in our state who can go from Kindergarten through 12th grade 09500152c.doc 187  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 without taking a music class, a drama class, a visual arts class. And this Governor, I'll give him credit. This Governor heard that message and in… over the last two (2) years invested six million dollars ($6,000,000) in arts and foreign language funding through the Illinois State Board of Education. We've made a lot of progress over the last three (3) years and we're particularly disappointed that the Governor's budget, his original budget, called for four million dollars ($4,000,000) for that arts and foreign language grant program. The budget that was passed out of the General Assembly increased that funding to over six millions dollars ($6,000,000) and the Governor's Veto budget and the single stroke of his Veto pen removed every penny of that important funding."

"The Governor's original budget proposed in essence flat funding for the Illinois Arts Council at 20.6 million dollars ($20,600,000). The budget that was passed by both chambers on August 10 would've increased funding for the Arts Council by a little bit more than three million dollars ($3,000,000). It would've brought us very close to our goal of twenty-four million ($24,000,000) or two dollars ($2) per person per year for the Illinois Arts Council. The Governor's Veto budget represented the largest percentage decrease in the Illinois Arts Council's forty-two (42) year history. His proposed budget would eliminate seven million dollars ($7,000,000) in funding for the Illinois Arts Council or a 30 percent decrease. He also completely eliminated every penny for arts and foreign language grant programming at the Illinois State Board of Education."

"Absolutely. This will be a devastating impact for the entire nonprofit arts industry. It will threaten the stability of the arts funding environment in Illinois." 09500152c.doc 189  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Absolutely. I mentioned the study of the nonprofit arts industry, the economic impact of the nonprofit arts industry in Chicago, and it reveals that the nonprofit arts industry generates 1.1 billion dollars ($1,100,000,000) in economic activity every year. It produces over thirty thousand (30,000) full time equivalent jobs, and these are jobs that stay local. They stay in the community. The artistic director or theater director position is not in jeopardy of being outsourced next year to India or China. Dollars that are generated from arts events also stay local. Our study of the nonprofit arts industry in Chicago revealed that 45 percent of those individuals who attended arts events came from outside of Cook County and they spent 50 percent more than their local counterparts. The arts attract tourism and generate tax dollars."

"The budget for my organization I'm here to represent, we're an advocacy organization, we're representing the council. The council's budget was cut by 30 percent."

"And we agree wholeheartedly with your view. In an unprecedented move, the Illinois Arts Council notified all grantees about their… their anticipated award for this year. So, you're right. There are theaters, there are libraries, there are park districts, there are cultural organizations throughout the state that have seen what the impact of this cut will mean on the ground. Forty percent… in some instances, we're lucky to see a 40 percent cut. Our organization received a 50 percent cut in Arts Council funding. And I agree wholeheartedly that support for the 09500152c.doc 192  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 arts is a smart investment and a cultural, educational, and economic growth of the state."

"Good evening, I'm Gary Slutkin. I'm the Executive Director of CeaseFire Illinois. I'm a physician. I'm… not everybody knows that CeaseFire is working in Maywood, Decatur, Aurora, Cicero, Rockford, East St. Louis, Waukegan, North Chicago, and eighteen (18) communities in Chicago from Rogers Park to Roseland. The CeaseFire program stops shootings and killings in neighborhoods and its cut has already affected many of these neighborhoods with shootings going up. The CeaseFire program also interacts with gang members to transition them from their life in gangs out of that life and out of that thinking and into jobs and into education. The… several neighborhoods that have benefited from CeaseFire have dropped from the range of fifty (50) to sixty (60) shootings a year down to seven (7) or eight (8). And we've been averaging a 40 to 09500152c.doc 193  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 50 percent drop in shootings and killings. This depends on outreach workers and interrupters that've been hired… specifically hired, trained, selected. These workers have gone off the streets. Some of them have lost their mortgages are being… not making their payments. We've lost about five hundred (500) clients who we were carrying, who were finding their way out of the street life and into a more beneficial life. CeaseFire workers have interrupted twelve hundred (1200) conflicts that could've been a shooting or killing in the last three and a half years and two hundred and fifty (250) in the first six (6) months of this calendar year. And these workers with rare exception are not on the street now. We're aware of a pregnant woman and her fetus who were both killed in East Garfield Park in the last month since we've gone off the street. We're aware of multiple shootings and killings in Roseland, Woodlawn, Austin, and other neighborhoods. And we have data that shootings are going up in the absence of the program's strength. This Veto hurts the infrastructure. Definitely, hurts moms who have lost kids and affects everything that's going on in the neighborhood. There's no way of considering the safety of our neighborhoods as anything excessive, but…"

"We're grateful to the General Assembly for its support. And we are hopeful for an override if at all 09500152c.doc 194  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 possible. Thank you very much. It's critical to the neighborhoods themselves."

"Thank you. Thank you for having us here today. And we realize that we're the… we're batting cleanup here. We want to thank you for your patience. I'm sure it's been a long day for all of you. My name's Leslie Corbett and I'm here today representing the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation. And I'm here to inform you how the Governor's Veto of our appropriation will tragically reduce low-income families access to critical civil legal services. Unlike in criminal cases, people who face civil legal problems do not automatically have a right to counsel. This is true despite the fact that the consequences of many civil legal problems such as the loss of custody of a child or the lost of a home to foreclosure are as serious as the consequences for some criminal offenses. The IEJF receives and distributes state funds to civil legal aid organizations across the state. These providers in turn use these funds to provide legal information, advice, mediation, and representation to over ninety-eight thousand (98,000) of our most vulnerable neighbors. The state appropriation for these legal services currently stands at 3.5 million (3,500,000), the 2007 fiscal year level. The extra 1.5 million (1,500,000) requested by Attorney General Lisa Madigan and originally approved by the Governor in his 09500152c.doc 195  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 budget would've enabled these same legal aid organizations to serve twenty thousand (20,000) additional families in crisis, victims of domestic violence and seniors victimized by consumer fraud. Legal aid provides a safety net for families and seniors, keeping people from slipping into poverty and dependence. And I'd like to quickly share the story of Sally with you. Sally had been a victim of domestic violence for over twenty (20) years. Her husband's favorite form of abuse was slamming her head into walls. And as a result she experienced brain damage, which causes her to slur her words. She tried to seek help but to no avail. Finally, a concerned family member took her to the Will County Legal Assistance Program who were able to get her an order of protection, a divorce, and spousal support. Sally is now living on her own with the help of her adult son. It's stories like this that illustrate what legal aid funding is all about. It's about helping people whose safety, economic stability, and livelihood are at stake. It's about the difference between safety and violence, shelter and homelessness, security and financial exploitation. What it is not about is pork. For years Illinois's legal aid system has been severely under funded. Among the ten (10) most populous states, we rank ninth, spending 3.5 million (3,500,000) compared to the average of 9.7. As a result, legal aid organizations around the state continue to operate on a shoe string with fewer than one hundred (100) legal aid lawyers to serve the needs of… downstate to serve the needs of over four hundred thousand 09500152c.doc 196  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 (400,000) low-income people. This additional 1.5 million (1,500,000) we realize is a relatively small amount but yet the impact is immeasurable. With this aforementioned promise increase in state…"

"Certainly. With this afore promise increase in state support for legal… civil legal aid, we can truly come closer to fulfilling a basic tenant of our democracy, which is justice and access to justice for all. Thank you."

"Representative, thank you for your questions, and especially for your concern about Aurora, which has an enormous public safety problem as you know. The way that CeaseFire works is that we work with existing community 09500152c.doc 197  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007 groups who are doing other activities as well. But that much of the CeaseFire operation in many of these neighborhoods has… has stopped or gone into kind of volunteerish action, which is not even safe for the workers. So, it… many of the offices have stopped functioning."

"Well, actually we… because of foundation and federal support we have retained the central core of CeaseFire itself, which is being highly valued for its ability to do the training and provide the model. And as many people here know, we're a national program now. And so, we're doing work in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Newark, and probably with Los Angeles. So, we're as a center piece operation we exist and when CeaseFire Illinois, should it come back on track, we'd be, you know, back in operation with all of these sites. Just to point out, the number of killings in Illinois has dropped more than any other of state between 2000 and 2005, during the period that the General Assembly and the Governor have supported this."

"Thank you for your kind words and your question. We actually are in our grant process right now and the programs in front of us that we won't be able to fund if the appropriation isn't restored, include on the program called Midwest Center for Law and the Deaf. They would like funding to do some video work so they could inform deaf people about different pieces of the law. We won't be able to fund that. We won't be able to fully fund the special education hotline that informs parents of how to work through the special education process. We're not going to be able to fully fund that without the increase. And we also won't be able to fully fund domestic violence work, which has been our original founding focus. We're not going to be able to fund all those positions this year."

"One point five million (1,500,000), which doesn't sound like a lot, but legal aid is a very cost-effective program. We could serve twenty thousand (20,000) additional families with those funds."

"Definitely. We're ninth out of the ten most populous states in what respect." 09500152c.doc 199  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"Thank you."

"Yeah. Representative Osterman, you've been a tremendous support of this program. We appreciate it. We love the Rogers Park program. It's been a model among others. You're… you're exactly right on. This is peak season. It's peak season in July, in August, and still for shooting."

"I've not had direct conversations with him or his office."

"We would welcome this. Yes." 09500152c.doc 200  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TRANSCRIPTION DEBATE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE 152nd Legislative Day 10/1/2007

"We feel that it's taken years to develop functioning, strong, complimentary relationship with law enforcement that we've arrived at and we value it tremendously. I mean… what you're pointing out here is that that what's required to build this thing up takes a lot, takes a lot of time, a lot of effort."

"Right."

"Thank you. Yes."

"We had no indication, no expectation. It took everybody by surprise. And I want to point out that the program in Decatur like the program in Cicero, which are two (2) of the six (6) brand new programs where… are just so hopeful and so optimistic and so collaborative. And I think we were just really excited about them. I still am, because I'm hoping that they'll come online. But I know what went into the building of the Decatur program and the Cicero program. There… tremendous possibility for your community."

"Thank you."