Rally will publicize effects of social service cuts

By Melissa Westphal

BusinessRockford.com

Local social service agency leaders are planning a rally next week to help the public understand the full scope of state budget cuts.

Agency officials met this morning to discuss their next steps — they have less than two weeks before the end of the state’s fiscal year. Lawmakers have passed a budget that includes drastic cuts to human services, and Gov. Pat Quinn is lobbying for an income tax increase ease the budget crisis.

Mary Ellen Commare, executive director of Youth Services Network, is collecting impact statements from agencies that explain how the cuts will be felt here — from the number of layoffs to the number of clients hurt by the program cuts.

Youth Services Network is being told that some of its state contracts are being cut entirely, like its Unified Delinquency Intervention Intensive services program that helps keep delinquent boys out of the Department of Juvenile Justice. That program served 38 boys this year.

Agency directors are planning a rally at 5 p.m. Wednesday outside the Zeke Giorgi Building, 200 S. Wyman St. Lawmakers are heading back to Springfield on Tuesday.

E-mail Commare at mecommare@xta.com for information.

Reach staff writer Melissa Westphal at 815-987-1341 or mwestpha@rrstar.com.

 

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