Quinn proposes closures to solve budge problems, but cost is too high for state
September 13, 2011
Gov. Pat Quinn presented a proposal to close seven state institutions, including prisons and mental institutions, to keep the state operational on a reduced budget. Since its announcement Thursday, the proposal has been under fire — and rightly so.
Even in the desperate financial situation we have found ourselves in, the state government needs to decide which cuts we can afford and which we cannot. Everything can be axed under the pretense of saving money and balancing the budget.
In this case, closing the seven institutions is estimated to save $58.4 million. But at what cost? Under Quinn’s proposal, these facilities that are necessary for the public good would be discarded.
The mental institutions especially are places where help is given to those who cannot help themselves. The developmentally disabled who are currently at the mental institutions may not handle environmental changes well, a tragic consequence of this poorly conceived plan.
Other casualties of the proposed cuts are the more than 1,900 people who are employed at these institutions; this is in the face of the no-layoff agreement Quinn made with an employee union.
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The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is understandably not pleased. The unemployment numbers continue to be high, and as most other politicians are turning their efforts to job creation, cutting 1,938 jobs doesn’t seem like an approach that would help Illinois’ dismal economic conditions.
When he introduced the proposal, Quinn chalked the cuts up to the budget the Illinois legislature had passed last spring — a smaller budget than one Quinn originally wanted.
The proposal sounds like an attempt to pick the most uncomfortable areas for the state to cut in order to “punish” the Illinois legislature for passing a budget that was $1.5 billion less than Quinn’s desired one. Politics may be politics, but it is inappropriate to play the partisan game with something as important as prisons and mental institutions, especially at the cost of desperately valued American jobs.
