A group of human service providers wants Illinois lawmakers and Governor Bruce Rauner to pass a budget for the current fiscal year and next fiscal year. That’s after it appears the state will go more than half of this fiscal year without one.
Judith Gethner is with Illinois Partners for Human Services. She says they want both to happen in January, so providers can prepare for cuts that are likely to come.
“You give these nonprofits the ability to plan starting in January for not only the last six months of the fiscal year, but then into the next year,” Gethner said. “’Cause they can do better at fending off whatever’s going to hit them if they’ve got longer runway to run.”
The governor is scheduled to present his next budget in February. But Gethner says the work for next fiscal year’s spending plan typically starts now, so it would be possible to approve a two-year plan in January.
“If they could do it for two years, that would help people set their planning, so they have a better understanding of staffing and the ability to know how many people they can serve,” Gethner said.
