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August 31, 2007
The
Honorable Rod Blagojevich
Governor
of Illinois
207
Statehouse
Springfield, IL
62706
Re:
Vetoes to Critical Community Services for People with Disabilities and
Mental Illness
Dear
Governor Blagojevich:
We are
disappointed with your decision to veto increases for critical community
services for people with disabilities and mental illness in the FY 2008
budget as contained in HB 3866. We were even more dismayed that 10% of the
$463 M vetoed was from community services for people with disabilities,
mental illness, and alcohol and substance abuse disorders. Now that you have
taken your action, we will turn our attention to the General Assembly to
seek an override of your vetoes.
We have
worked hard with your administration to advocate for funding and policies
that maintain the current system of community services. Late last summer and
into the fall, we embarked on an education campaign called One Illinois to
unite the disability community to promote our message to your
administration: You can’t talk about
education, healthcare, housing, jobs or human rights without talking
community services for persons with disabilities and mental illness.
All of the issues that you spoke about during your campaign affect people
with disabilities and their families. And yet, services and supports for
those individuals are rarely discussed and prioritized in that context.
Right now, Illinois is setting the tone for serving people in the community
and at-home, but that cannot happen without a sustainable network of
community services. Moving forward, we need your leadership in ensuring
funding and policies value the choice of community services and supports.
This
past Spring the IARF Board instructed us to seek a 3% cost of doing business
for community providers who serve people with developmental disabilities,
mental illness, and substance abuse disorders, and a 50 cents an hour
increase for direct care and non-executive staff in community agencies.
These requests were to maintain services for people currently receiving them
in the community and to provide additional resources to increase wages for
direct care and non-executive staff. The resources were also very critical
to allow employers to adjust to the mandatory minimum wage increase. Such
mandates never come with funding increases to community contracts.
IARF
will be leading an advocacy campaign called ‘Have a Heart’. We are educating
legislators about the impact of the vetoes to increases for community
services in the budget for people with disabilities and mental illness and
to show that there are people, not “pork”, affected by the cuts. We have
attached a graph with items you have vetoed in HB 3866. We understand your
commitment to healthcare, but we believe that the health and well-being of
people with disabilities and mental illness cannot be jeopardized to pay for
it.
We
welcome an opportunity to discuss the value of community services with you
and your staff. You can reach me at (217) 753-1190 or
jstover@hso.net.
Sincerely,
Janet
S. Stover
Executive Director
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Illinois
