Illinois Lawmakers Vote Overwhelmingly to Restore Illinois Substance Abuse Treatment Money

TASC, Inc. President Pamela Rodriguez

(Chicago, IL) – The Illinois legislature on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to restore nearly $30 million to community substance abuse treatment providers throughout Illinois, drawing praise from advocates.

“This supplemental budget immediately restores substance abuse treatment money to community care providers who received less money than intended in the state’s original budget,” said State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), chair of the House Human Services Appropriations Committee.

The budget fix, Senate Bill 2412, which shifted money from various state accounts without increasing state spending, added $28 million to substance abuse treatment care and restored spending to other key state programs.

The bi-partisan bill passed the House 92-20, and in the Senate, 50-5.

“We focused on the 99%,” said Feigenholtz. “Our budget priorities reflected their needs.”

The restoration of the substance abuse treatment money for community providers drew deep praise from a top treatment advocate.

“The successful effort to restore funding to Illinois substance abuse treatment services had many legislative champions, especially Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, State Representatives Sara Feigenholtz, Barbara Flynn Currie, Kenneth Dunkin, Patricia Bellock, and Rosemary Mulligan, as well as State Senators Heather Steans, Dan Kotowski, Jacqueline Collins, William Delgado and Mattie Hunter,” said TASC President Pamela Rodriguez. “We are deeply grateful to them, and to all who voted to restore funding for these essential services.”

The legislation also included $30 million for community mental health services.

Governor Pat Quinn is expected to sign the bill.

New Illinois Budget Not Settled Gov. Pat Quinn Says

(Springfield, IL) – Gov. Pat Quinn may sign the 2012 state budget Thursday, but the spending plan is not a one-and-done deal.

“The budget is an on-going process,” said Quinn. “We have to work on it 365 days of the fiscal year.”

Quinn, who introduced a nearly $36 billion budget, said he is not happy with the $33.4 billion spending plan that Illinois lawmakers sent him, and he wants more spending in education and human services.

But while Quinn can shift around money in the budget, he cannot order more spending, said state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago.

“The governor has some limitations when he is acting on the budget,” said Feigenholtz. ”He cannot add. He can only (order) line-item reductions.”

But Feigenholtz, who helped write the human services portion of the state budget, said Quinn “should come back to the Legislature to ask us for more” money this fall. And Quinn agreed.

“There may be some legislators that want to revisit certain areas (of the budget),” said Quinn. “I think it’s really imperative that legislators not say, ‘We did something in the spring,’ and that’s the last word.”

OUR VIEW: Governor Quinn Should Sign Budget with Restored Funding for Addiction Treatment

TASC appreciates the General Assembly’s work in restoring FY12 funding for addiction treatment and case management. These funds originally had been eliminated in Governor Quinn’s proposed FY12 budget.

Thanks to the House sponsorship of Speaker Michael Madigan and Representative Sara Feigenholtz, along with the Senate Sponsorship of Heather Steans, House Bill 3717 appropriates funding for community-based addiction treatment with only a 1 percent cut from current-year funding. This represents a major victory for sound fiscal and public policy. It also slows a three-year trend of steady funding cuts to the Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse (DASA). 

State budget cuts have resulted in diminished access to addiction treatment for those who seek it—even as new designer drugs emerge and prescription drug abuse is on the rise. DASA’s funding for TASC services has decreased 27 percent in the past three years. We have absorbed these budget cuts through layoffs and service reductions, and we have made further adjustments to maximize the efficiency of our services and the leanness of our infrastructure.

Enough is enough. 

The legislature agrees.

TASC’s statewide services for courts and probation are mandated by law and funded through DASA. Through clinical case management, we place clients into community-based treatment programs, monitor their progress, support their recovery, and make reports to the courts. This balance of opportunity and accountability works: defendants who are sent to TASC are twice as successful in treatment as other criminal justice-referred clients in Illinois. Through TASC’s work, people enter recovery, obtain employment, and reunify with their families.

Illinois taxpayers spend $25,000 to incarcerate a nonviolent, drug-using offender for a year, whereas the cost of community-based drug treatment, combined with TASC supervision, is less than $5,000. Each person sent to TASC and treatment instead of prison saves taxpayers $20,000. When it costs taxpayers five times more to incarcerate a nonviolent offender than it does to treat his or her addiction, the choice is easy.

The decision of the Illinois legislature to restore funds to treatment and case management is not only a sound fiscal decision, but a solid public safety decision as well. For clients mandated to TASC as an alternative to incarceration, arrests for both drug crimes and property crimes were reduced by 71 percent compared to before they came to TASC.

We thank the members of the Illinois House and Senate for restoring these critical funds to save taxpayer dollars and make our communities safer. We urge the Governor to follow suit.

Gov. Pat Quinn Is “Reviewing” Illinois Budget Impact on Illinois Human Services, Aide Says

(Springfield, IL) — June 1, 2011. Illinois’ new budget may spend less than Gov. Pat Quinn’s original proposal, but it is higher than this past year’s budget and was balanced by delaying the payment of billions of dollars in unpaid bills until this current fiscal year.

“The governor has been clear … that while we put our fiscal house in order, we must continue to protect core priorities,” said Kelly Kraft, Quinn’s budget spokeswoman.

Quinn is “reviewing” the budget’s impact on human services and schools statewide, Kraft said, which were among those items lawmakers trimmed to reduce spending from Quinn’s $36 billion to $33.2 billion.

Illinois House, Senate Restore Drug Treatment Money Cut by Gov. Pat Quinn

(Springfield, IL) – Both the Illinois House and Senate last week approved human services budgets for next year that virtually restored and, in the senate version, fully restored drug prevention and treatment funding that Governor Pat Quinn had proposed eliminating in his original budget plan.

The House Human Services budget, HB 3717, which passed 83-25, reduces Illinois addiction treatment funding 4.4%, lowering most line items by 1%, and cuts prevention services by 20%, slicing the main line item by 1%.

House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), who spoke to the chamber after the vote, noted that this is the first time since 1991 that the House has passed a budget composed of multiple bills and in which the process was spearheaded by the five House appropriations committees.

Madigan also praised the bi-partisan effort, thanking the Republicans for working together to design the budget.

“The Speaker noted, however, that the work is not yet done,” said Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association CEO Sara Moscato Howe. “There will still be negotiations with the Senate over their version of next year’s budget.”

On the heels of the House passing its human services budget—and not to be outdone by the lower chamber—State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) released a new amendment, SA 4, to the senate’s human services budget, SB 2450, that dramatically improved Steans’ original proposal, which had restored only 50% of the Governor’s funding elimination.

Steans’ new proposal fully restored funding for addiction prevention and treatment to last year’s budget level with some minor increases in the prevention, meth awareness, addiction treatment services, and DCFS line items. The full Senate approved the revised plan 32-24.

“Clearly this is a major victory in our fight to secure adequate funding for addiction services,” said Howe.

The IADDA chief executive noted, however, that the Illinois budget for next year remains a work in progress.

“Both chambers still need to reconcile their different budget proposals before a final package can be sent to Governor Quinn for his consideration,” said Howe. “And the governor could veto budget lines that fail to meet his approval.”

“Yet, it is important that we take time to thank lawmakers, like Senator Steans and State Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, for their work in behalf of addiction health care during a difficult budget year.”

The legislature is scheduled to adjourn on May 31.

Illinois House Lawmakers Put Final Touches on Illinois Budget; Most Programs Face Cuts

(Springfield, IL) – Illinois lawmakers are rushing to find the magic fiscal number with some legislators expecting final figures by next week.

Illinois budget plans in the Illinois House for higher education, public safety and general services are headed for full debate this week, while agreements on elementary and high school education and human services are close to a resolution.

“The House will have the budget done by next week,” state Rep. Luis Arroyo, D-Chicago, said.

Unlike previous years, the Illinois House has delegated a larger role for its budget committees in determining next fiscal year’s budget.

State Rep. Kenneth Dunkin, D-Chicago, who heads the budget committee on higher education, said his group made it under the House’s higher education budget goal of $2.1 billion by targeting for-profit schools through the state’s monetary award program, or MAP.

“We had to make cuts, and the committee decided that cuts towards for-profit schools were far easier than cuts to the opposite (not-for-profit schools),” said Dunkin, who hoped the funds might be brought back on the Senate side, which is dealing with a larger $34.3 billion total budget plan.

MAP funds were reduced by $17 million.