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Suburban nonprofits to state: We need funding

Suburban nonprofits are distressed at the prospect of another fiscal year without a state budget, coupled with the possibility of deep cuts to Medicaid proposed by Republicans in Congress.

Representatives of eight agencies serving clients - including people with mental illness, victims of domestic violence, and children with disabilities - in Kane, Cook and DuPage counties attended a news conference Monday hosted by the League of Women Voters of Central Kane County at the United Way of Elgin.

Family Focus, an organization that provides educational tools for struggling parents and children with sites in Chicago and six suburbs, would have to temporarily lay off 71 percent of its staff - or about 100 people - if there is no budget by the end of the week, said Mariana Osoria, an agency vice president. The state owes about $2.7 million to Family Focus, which exhausted its reserves and line of credit.

"That equals people's lives," Osoria said. "Their children, families (and) community members will not be able to get those services."

Michelle Meyer, executive director of Mutual Ground domestic violence shelter in Aurora, said the agency has cut 33 percent of its staff and has had to turn away 54 adults and 12 children since January.

"I understand some difficult decisions are going to have to be made at the state level," she said. "I just expect them to be made."

Nonprofits are "geniuses" for staying afloat in the face of the state's budget crisis, said Gil Fonger, president of Geneva-based Marklund, which serves individuals with developmental disabilities. Marklund is owed about $4 million from that state and has an operating cash flow margin of less than 2 percent, he said.

"The way politicians pontificate about the $15 living wage when we can't even get a $1 increase to DSPs (direct support professionals) is just such hypocrisy," Fonger said.

The health care plan unveiled last week by Republicans in the U.S. Senate would spell disaster for the Association for Individual Development, where 75 percent of operating revenues derive from Medicaid, said Lynn O'Shea, president of the organization.

Before Medicaid was created in 1965, the state had tens of thousands of beds at state-run mental health centers, but those are all but gone, she said.

"Without Medicaid, where will people go for those services?" she said. "That will begin the downward spiral."

Illinois was among the first states in the nation that deemed domestic violence services as "essential" more than 40 years ago, said Gretchen Vapnar, executive director of the Community Crisis Center in Elgin. "What happened?" she said. "We have, (in the) least, been ignored."

Micki Miller, assistant executive director of Senior Services Associates, said its staff hasn't had a raise in five years while the state hasn't increased its reimbursement rates for 10 years. Meanwhile, clientele has steadily grown with 10,000 baby boomers turning 65 each day, she said.

"If the legislators had to squeeze blood out of a turnip like we do," she said, "they'd learn a lot."

  Jim Gould, parent of an Association for Individual Development client, speaks about the limited resources available to his son due to the lack of state funding. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
  Karen Beyer, CEO of Ecker Center for Mental Health, said the agency has 114 people on a waiting list for services. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
  Lynn O'Shea, president of the Association for Individual Development, said the Better Care Reconciliation Act unveiled last week by Senate Republicans would spell disaster for her agency. Rick West/rwest@dailyherald.com
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