State Budget Impact on Human Services

The State’s Fiscal Crisis:

Changing our Collective Response

June 14, 2010

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Value of Human Services• Human services are essential programs and services in place in

every part of Illinois that help individuals and families, create jobs, build strong communities, and contribute to the state’s economy.

• As many as 2 million people in Illinois depend on state funding for basic services such as child care; after-school programs for teens; skills training or help finding jobs; counseling for victims of domestic violence; assistance for those with mental illness or developmental disabilities; in-home care for the elderly.

• 400,000 Illinoisans are employed in the human services sector.

• Studies show that every dollar the public invests in community services returns $5 to $20 to the taxpayer in savings from reduced emergency room visits, lower crime and unemployment, and higher standardized test scores and graduation rates.

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Survey Findings• 90% of agencies surveyed rely on government support.

• Almost half of those agencies rely on government support for more than 50% of their budget.

• 77% are owed payment from the state for services already provided.

• 62% of the agencies have reduced staff size in last year.

• 60% reported they will be forced to reduce or freeze the number of people they serve.

• 13% of the agencies anticipate they will be forced to temporarily or permanently close physical locations due to reductions in state funding.

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Financial Stress Test

• UWMC conducted an analysis of selected partner agencies to assess level of financial distress

• Three indicators� Revenue over (under) expenses

� Days of cash on hand

� Current ratio

• Of the 275 reporting agencies, 214 were flagged by at least one indicator

• More than half had multiple flags

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State Budget concerns• Illinois has cut funding for human services almost every year for the

past decade in real, inflation-adjusted terms.

• The FY11 state budget includes uncertain and unacceptable cuts to human services.

• These cuts fall on the most vulnerable in our state – seniors, people with mental illness and disabilities, victims of violence, and children.

• Such cuts will harm individuals and families, result in the loss of jobs across Illinois, shift more costs to towns, counties, and hospitals, and further weaken our state’s economy.

• Reimbursement payments from the state are running anywhere from 3 to 12 months behind resulting in a growing “account receivable” to the human services sector.

• Depleted cash reserves and exhausted credit lines are leading toprogram cutbacks and closures.

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Illinois Partners for Human Service is a statewide network oforganizations that advocate for high quality, responsible and sustainable approaches to providing human service in Illinois. Weengage nonprofit, government, faith based, business and educationleaders who agree that our communities are healthier and safer whenresidents have access to bedrock public services.

Our focus is uniting the human services sector – including programsand services ranging from early childhood, afterschool programs,family support, mental health and substance abuse treatment, toassistance to people with disabilities, workforce training, violenceprevention, and homecare for the elderly.

ILLINOIS PARTNERS

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The collective advocacy of Illinois Partners is focused on threekey issues that are essential to a strong human servicessector:

• QUALITY SERVICES that are capable of helping Illinois

residents improve their lives

• ADEQUATE FUNDINGthat reflects the needs of Illinois

residents and the true cost of providingquality services

• MEASURABLE RESULTS that establish a standard of mutual

accountability for achieving meaningfuloutcomes

ADVOCACY FOCUS

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Questions?

Contact:

Jack KaplanDirector of Public Policy and

AdvocacyUnited Way of Metropolitan Chicago(312) 906-2368Jack.kaplan@uw-mc.org