Illinois budget woes: Nonprofits' programs shrinking as impasse continues

DeKALB – Few lawmakers are holding out hope that today’s meeting between the governor and the state’s legislative leaders will move the budget needle, but people such as Barbara Napolitano have their fingers crossed that the stalemate soon will be broken.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, are scheduled to meet today on the budget and other pending issues – for the first time since May.

As Illinois enters its sixth month without a state budget in place, some people like Napolitano who rely on assistance from social service agencies to help sustain them are being turned away.

Napolitano, 57, turned to DeKalb-based Hope Haven for rental assistance when she fell more than $6,000 behind on rent for the three-bedroom DeKalb apartment she has lived in for over five years with her adult daughter and granddaughter. Because of the state budget impasse, the agency told her it couldn't help.

“It is very sad that people that worked, and that are striving to make a better life for themselves, it seems [the government] knocks you down,” Napolitano said.

Illinois has been without a budget since the last one expired June 30. Although court orders and consent decrees have required much of the state’s spending continue at last year’s levels, many services and programs that relied heavily on state funding have gone without.

Napolitano was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, less than a year after retiring from her $52,000-a-year job in retail to pursue a lifelong goal of becoming a nurse. At the time, she had a nest egg that she planned to live on for a couple of years, until she completed nursing school and started working in that industry.

“I always worked. I always paid my bills,” said Napolitano, who is currently enrolled part-time in a medical assistant program at Waubonsee Community College.

Her illness derailed her plans, and the medical bills that followed quickly depleted her savings.

Napolitano weeps sometimes when she talks about how much her life has changed in the past two years. She now gets a monthly
disability check from Social Security, is on Medicaid and pays for food with help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.

This summer, she received a housing assistance voucher from the federal government (commonly known as Section 8). But she still owes the back rent, which could be grounds for eviction.

“Now they consider me 135 percent below the poverty level,” she said.

Illinois has been without a budget since the last one expired June 30. Without legislation that appropriates revenues and designates some spending, some state services and programs have gone unfunded. Republicans and Democrats have failed to reach a deal on a spending plan, a situation many have decried has a negative impact.

Hope Haven is among the dozens of DeKalb County area nonprofit agencies in financial straits without the state having a spending plan.

Among its services, the agency runs a shelter, and in years past, it also has received a $20,000 homeless prevention grant from the state Department of Human Services to help people like Napolitano stave off eviction.

“But the budget hasn’t been approved. So we can’t utilize our homeless prevention funds,” said Lesly Wicks, executive director of Hope Haven. “We’re unable to assist people. People are becoming homeless because those emergency funds aren’t available.”

Wicks said Hope Haven has some cash reserves. However, because there’s no telling when the state will have a spending plan, and because it’s unlikely that funding would be retroactive once there is a budget, the agency won’t front money to help people because there’s no guarantee of reimbursement, she said.

“It’s painful that people are becoming homeless over $200 [for example],” said Wicks. “It’s much more cost effective to help them catch up on their rent, if they’re a little bit short on rent, rather than have them lose their housing.”

Hope Haven receives a total of four state grants, totaling $170,000, to help more than 300 people with housing issues each year, Wicks said. One assists with paying for permanent housing for people who are severely mentally ill.

Some nonprofit leaders have said that as much as 70 percent of their budget is dependent on state funding. The state isn’t funding the nonprofits, so they aren’t able to help citizens.

“Our reserve is running out quickly. We hope to limp until Christmas, and I know we’ll get a lot of community support,” Wicks said. “So hopefully that will help us hobble into February or March, when a (budget) bill gets signed. Everything is a big question mark right now. We’re literally running on a wing and a prayer.”

Last month, at what was billed as a crisis meeting hosted by the county, Kishwaukee United Way Executive Director Dawn Littlefield said 40 percent of DeKalb County’s nonprofit agencies have made service and personnel cuts since July 1, when the state’s new fiscal year started. Another 13 percent have shuttered programs – like Hope Haven’s homeless prevention initiative.

Littlefield also explained that over half of the county’s nonprofits have enough reserves to last three months. A quarter of those, she said, have less than a month’s cash for expenses.

Democrats blame the Republican govenor and lawmakers.

“The governor is holding the budget process hostage to a personal agenda that he believes will improve the economy,” said Rikeesha Phelon, a spokeswoman for Senate President John Cullerton. “Meanwhile, his budget stalemate is beginning to have an immediate and negative impact on the economy. Something has got to give.”

Republicans point the finger back across the aisle.

“The problem of not having a budget is not the governor’s fault, “ said state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford. “Up until now, the [Democratic] leaders in the Legislature have said we don’t want to compromise, we don’t want to pass a balanced budget. We basically want to embarrass the governor.”

Democrats approved a budget in May. A month later, Rauner vetoed it, calling it unbalanced with a $5 billion funding shortfall. Throughout the continuous session, that went into the summer and fall, Democrats failed to override the veto. The fall veto session yielded no state spending authority.