093_SR0322
LRB093 14429 HSS 20117 r
1 SENATE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, Providing care treatment, rehabilitative, and
3 habilitative services to individuals with developmental
4 disabilities or mental illness is a fundamental
5 responsibility of Illinois State government; and
6 WHEREAS, Individuals with developmental disabilities and
7 mental illness depend on these services to ensure their
8 safety, meet their basic needs, help them to develop to their
9 fullest potential, and live, work, and recreate in the most
10 integrated setting appropriate to their individual
11 circumstances; and
12 WHEREAS, Centers for Independent Living provide critical
13 non-residential services to individuals with physical and
14 developmental disabilities that allow such individuals to
15 gain the skills necessary to direct their own lives,
16 participate in their communities, and gain self-sufficiency;
17 and
18 WHEREAS, Illinois has a widespread network of
19 community-based agencies with which it contracts for the
20 provision of such treatment, residential, non-residential,
21 and day treatment programs to thousands of individuals; and
22 WHEREAS, A critical variable in providing high quality
23 services to individuals with developmental disabilities,
24 physical disabilities or mental illness is having a
25 dedicated, stable, well-trained staff; and
26 WHEREAS, Historically these agencies have not received
27 sufficient State funding to cover the costs of providing
28 services, including the ability to provide salary levels or
29 benefits that attract and retain employees; and
30 WHEREAS, Such inadequate funding levels have resulted in
31 a decrease in the level of community services to individuals
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1 who need them, delays in the provision of services,
2 geographic differences in the availability of services, low
3 wages and inadequate benefits for staff, high employee
4 turnover, and an increased level of borrowing by service
5 providers to make ends meet; and
6 WHEREAS, Over the past three years insurance costs for
7 these service providers, particularly employee health
8 insurance costs, have increased far faster than the rate of
9 inflation; and
10 WHEREAS, These community service providers did not
11 receive any cost-of-doing-business or cost-of-living increase
12 in the previous two State fiscal years; and
13 WHEREAS, In recognition of all of the above, the Illinois
14 General Assembly, by an overwhelming vote, included a 4%
15 cost-of-living increase for these community service agencies
16 serving individuals with developmental disabilities, physical
17 disabilities, or mental illness in Illinois in a supplemental
18 funding bill for FY 2003 that increased the base funding
19 level for these agencies in subsequent fiscal years; and
20 WHEREAS, Governor Blagojevich signed that funding
21 increase into law; and
22 WHEREAS, The Governor's Office of Management and Budget
23 has directed all State agencies to hold 2% of their funds in
24 reserve; and
25 WHEREAS, In response to this directive, the Department of
26 Human Services reduced the base level funding of the agencies
27 that provide community based services to individuals with
28 developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, and mental
29 illness by 2% and applied the 4% cost-of-living increase to
30 the reduced base funding level, resulting in a net funding
31 increase to these agencies of less than 2%, rather than the
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1 4% intended by the General Assembly; and
2 WHEREAS, Because of other actions taken by the Department
3 of Human Services, many of these agencies have thus far
4 received no increase at all; and
5 WHEREAS, Because much of the funding to these agencies is
6 reimbursed to the State by the federal government at the rate
7 of 50% through the Medicaid program, the actual cost to the
8 State to fund the 4% cost-of-living increase is actually less
9 than the amount being held in reserve; therefore, be it
10 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL
11 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we call upon the
12 Governor's Office of Management and Budget and the Department
13 of Human Services to act to ensure that Centers for
14 Independent Living, agencies serving individuals with
15 developmental disabilities, and agencies serving individuals
16 with mental illness through contracts with the State receive
17 the full 4% cost-of-living increase that was mandated by
18 action of the General Assembly for the purpose of enabling
19 such agencies to continue to meet the vital needs of the
20 individuals they serve.