Champaign Township is searching for solutions to resolve the current deficits in the general assistance fund. The fund aims to assist those facing extreme poverty but recently has been falling short. Possible solutions were raised at the Champaign City Council study session last night. But, as council member Ken Pirok explains, the funding will not immediately come from taxpayers.

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“That is a possibility in the far distant future.and the purpose of our meeting last night was to discuss what our options are for the next couple years before that could possibly take place,” Pirok said.

Among the possible options, there was discussion of a loan to the township from the city. Currently, it’s estimated that two hundred and twenty-three dollars per family is needed each month to meet basic maintenance requirements for the poor. Recent cuts have decreased the monthly aid Champaign Township provides from two-hundred and twelve-dollars to one hundred-dollars … the minimum required by the state’s federal aid code.

Even with these cuts, Champaign Township anticipates a deficit of more than seventy-thousand dollars by 2009.

The council will hold another study session on this issue tentatively scheduled for May 22.