ART/KATHY POWERS
CHICAGO, IL — In 2014, corporate money bought Bruce Rauner the office of governor in the very troubled state of Illinois. Rauner’s pro-business, anti-union agenda and his refusal to raise revenues from his corporate sponsors reduced the state budget reality into extinction.
This is what has happened to the people of Illinois under Rauner:
Entitled people lost their benefits. The Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) cut food stamp benefits, Medicaid, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). DHS illegally and silently imposed weekly quotas for state workers to end or deny benefits to the poorest, at-risk populations. Upon appeal, most denied benefits become reinstated. “DHS operates with a fire extinguisher in one hand and a rosary bead in the other,” DHS Secretary James T. Dimas stated.
The governor tried to circumvent the Department of Labor’s new ruling that home service workers who work over 40-hours a week should be paid overtime. Rauner imposed several policies that capped the amount a home service worker may work to eliminate overtime pay. This policy infringes upon persons with disabilities to hire, fire and arrange a working schedule with personal assistants. Rauner erroneously suggested that this saves the state money. In fact, unnecessary emergency room trips, risk of permanent harm, and death to people who need home services negate the savings and inflate state fiscal obligations.
Community agencies permanently closed because the state did not pay its bills for human services. It also did not pay for education in the areas of special education costs, regular bus transportation, special education transportation and it cut funding for early childhood education.
Continued funding shortages affect state workers and their families who need medical care. “Many doctors and hospitals demand up-front payment or decline to accept new state-insured patients,” the Chicago-based watchdog Civic Federation said, because of record delays in payments of state health insurance claims. State agencies usually receive partial funding for maintenance costs and day-to-day expenses like utilities.
Since community colleges now struggle under inadequate higher educational funding, some have pulled out of contracts to provide education in correctional facilities. Furthermore, some human service providers that worked in the criminal justice system have had to reduce or eliminate services. Some drug treatment facilities have had to discontinue treatment services for drug courts that closed due to the imposed budget crisis.
The governor and the executive branch can control the tone of discussions. Rauner’s attitude in discussions with legislative opponents ranges from hostile to icy while state finances deteriorate without a budget. Advocates want Rauner to return to the bargaining table to work out a fair contract with AFSCME, or, as Rauner calls the union, “A scam me!”
Illegal actions resulting from policies designed to cut services, privatize the government, and break collective bargaining, place Illinois in great danger of litigious prosecution and further debt. Raising revenue from untapped corporate sources, closing corporate loopholes, and building community are possibilities that the governor and the Illinois General Assembly might seriously work toward. Unfortunately, neither have shown real interest in resolving this crisis.
Kathy Powers is a lifetime Chicagoan. At 50, Kathy realized her voice was the
voice of the people. She became a revolutionary activist whose lifelong fight raises
unheard voices. She is the Health Care Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial
Board.
