Who Is Harmed by the Illinois Budget Fiasco?

Children and families who use subsidized daycare services; the employers of those who lose the daycare subsidy who now are short workers; the daycare provider who loses the income from providing the daycare services; the local vendors who lose sales from the purchasing of products that the families and the daycare providers cannot afford to buy; the people of the State of Illinois who now have another family to try to feed, house and provide medical care for because this family who was maintaining with a little help now needs a lot of help.

Now multiply this statewide, and add in the people who are scheduled to lose Personal Assistant (PA) Services - which will affect 10,000 people statewide with disabilities and an additional 39,000 people over 60 throughout Illinois. PA Services allows those using the service to remain independent in their own homes. But with the loss of help with medication compliance, cooking, bathing, laundering of clothing, shopping for food and cleaning many will quickly decompensate and become unable to maintain their independence.

The people who lose their independence; the PA’s who lose the income from providing the services; the family members who now must either take responsibility for the person who lost services or find an alternative solution; the local vendors who lose sales due to the loss of income of the consumers and the families who must care for them and the Care providers whose income has greatly reduced and now cannot afford to buy; the people of the State of Illinois who now have to pay for Nursing Home placement for those who do not have family or become too ill to remain independent. Nursing home placements, by the way, cost two-thirds more than in home help.

Who doesn’t lose? Our legislatures, who passed a bill that allows them to continue to be paid even if there is no budget and the Governor who is independently wealthy.