Human service agencies fear cuts from local, state governments could mean reduction in services

Micki Chulick has never had to lay off an employee during her 30 years at Community Coordinated Child Care.

That might change in the next few weeks, she said, if proposed cuts at the state and local level become a reality.

“I’ve been telling people here, your job is secure,” Chulick, executive director of 4-C, said Friday. “Yesterday, I met with them and said I can no longer tell you that anymore. ... If (these cuts) stand, it’s going to have just devastating affects on human services.”

State lawmakers have passed a budget for the 2010 fiscal year, which starts July 1. But the budget could force $7 billion in cuts as the state grapples with a $11.6 billion deficit. Social service agencies that receive money from the Department of Health and Human Services were told this week to expect a 50 percent cut in funding for the next fiscal year.

The looming state cuts come as social service agencies in DeKalb are facing reductions in funding from the city as well. The city’s budget for Fiscal Year 2010 calls for the $212,000 distributed annually among 13 social service organizations to be reduced to $150,000. The funding would be phased out altogether after four years.

It’s not a move that lawmakers necessarily want to make. But times are tough, both local and state officials stressed, and like residents are doing during the tough economic times, governments also need to be looking for ways to tighten belts.

“I don’t think anybody ever thought that they could be cut in half like this,” said state Sen. Brad Burzynski, R-Rochelle.

“It is with regret that we would have to look at cutting human services, because we see the value that those services provide,” DeKalb Mayor Kris Povlsen said. “But it is a very, very difficult time. I don’t care if you are federal, state or local. Where do you cut? ... Everybody has to take a hit if we are going to get through.”


Struggling

The proposed budget cuts come as most residents are struggling financially due to the sluggish economy. Unemployment in the county is at nearly 10 percent, and local social service agencies are being heavily leaned on by families counting every dollar they spend.

But it also comes as the state is short more than $11 billion, and as the city is under pressure to provide a balanced budget.

“They are really distraught over this,” state Rep. Robert Pritchard, R-Hinckley, said of human service agencies. “How do you plan a budget when the state can’t get it’s act together?”

Both Pritchard and Burzynski placed blame for the state situation on Democrats, who have controlled the Legislature for the past several years. State finances have continued to decline under their watch, both said. Both men are against a proposed income tax increase floated by Democrats, who have said such a move could provide more funding for programs.

The state should instead reign in spending by examining the state’s Medicaid and pension programs, as well as going through the budget line by line to find programs that aren’t useful.

But where those cuts are made needs to be carefully considered, directors of local social service agencies said, because reductions to services as they needed the most will only add to the problem.

Pam Wiseman, executive director of Safe Passage, said her agency would lose $300,000 if the proposed state cuts stand. That would make it hard to operate the agency, which provides shelter and assistance for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Wiseman said the community – and other government services – would be worse off without a local agency like Safe Passage. Closing the shelter and agency, she said, would affect police, courts, hospitals, schools, community mental health issues and crime.

While she’s seen her share of increases and decreases in funding, Wiseman said the ones proposed this year are “by far the most serious” she’s seen in her 20 years with Safe Passage.

“We can’t plan anything. The fiscal year starts July 1, and we have no idea what services we’ll be able to provide. It’s not very cheery,” she said.


Double hit

The potential for funding reductions at both the city and state level are what have many social services worried.

Ellen Rogers, associate director of the Volunteer Action Center, said her agency receives about $1.7 million from the state to help provide transportation for the county. They also receive funding to help provide Meals on Wheels.

The loss of local money could mean less funding from the state, Rogers said, even if the proposed state cuts don’t stand. VAC is required to match 35 percent of the state grant, she said. VAC has in the past used the $45,000 the city provides to the agency as part of that match. The city has proposed providing about $32,000 to VAC for the next fiscal year.

And what do they cut – bus services for those who have no other means of transportation, or meals for homebound seniors?

Child care also stands to lose significantly if both cuts go through. The city, for instance, is proposing giving 4-C $20,529 next fiscal year, down from $29,000. 4-C provides services and resources that include child care financial assistance, parent and provider education, nursing, nutrition, social work, mental health, and advocacy.

The agency uses city funding to help pay in part for a nurse, social worker and parenting education classes, Chulick said, and shores that up with state funding.

Child care providers like The Growing Place in DeKalb are required by the state to be visited periodically by a nurse and social worker, Growing Place Executive Director Susan Petersen said. Her business, like many others, utilizes the one provided by 4-C. If those were no longer offered, Petersen said she would have to contact on her own for that.

Which will be difficult if she also loses state funding. Among the state programs on the chopping block is the Child Care Assistance Program, which provides money for low-income families to pay for quality child care. The state current has 175,000 children in the program, Chulick said, about 2,000 of which are in DeKalb County. About 150,000 of them could lose their child care subsidies if the cuts go through, she said.

Combined with less state funding for the low-income families they serve, it could mean day care centers go out of business, which will add more people to the unemployment rolls, Petersen said.

“It’s a lose-lose situation,” Petersen said, adding that if she tried to make up the difference by having the families who pay for child care without state assistance she would price herself out of business.


Hoping for change

The local funding is forefront on the minds of DeKalb agencies, with many planning on turning out en masse to Monday’s city council meeting to tell aldermen just what the cuts will mean.

Several said they plan to bring up the source of the city’s funding for social services: In 1987, the city increased its home rule sales tax from 0.5 percent to 0.75 percent. The intent was to use the $375,000 generated to pay for social services, street improvement programs, public building maintenance and staffing needs, according to city officials.

“How can they all of a sudden say, too bad, we aren’t going to do that anymore,” asked Karen Hagen, executive director of the DeKalb County Hospice, which received $2,400 from the city last year and is set to receive about $1,700 for the next fiscal year.

The tax increase was not binding, Povlsen said, and he suggested that the city look at what that funding was intended for. There were just a handful of agencies that received funding initially, he said, and at a much lower level.

Povlsen said he knows the proposed cuts would be tough to handle, but noted that everyone is being asked to take a hit. City administrators are not getting pay increases, and the unions are being asked to do the same, he added.

And while he stressed that he knows the value social services provide, Povlsen said the core services of the city are police, fire and public works. He noted that the budget still have to be approved by the council, and said he expects more discussion at Monday’s meeting.

And at the state level, Burzynski thinks lawmakers will be back in Springfield before the end of the month.

“I could be wrong, but I don’t believe that these cuts will stand,” Burzysnki said. “Many of these services are too valuable.”

Daily Chronicle Editor Kristen Schmidt and The Associated Press contributed to this report.