Thresholds is leading the call to the state legislature and governor of Illinois to stop the draconian cuts to human services in Illinois and to reinstate funding to ensure that the most vulnerable citizens in our state receive the care and services they need to lead more independent, hopeful lives.
We the undersigned are asking the State of Illinois to reinstate funding for human services throughout the state.
As you are now well aware, the state of Illinois is officially facing a budget crisis that has the potential to dramatically damage the budgets of human service providers throughout the state. Thresholds is no exception. Letters sent last month to Thresholds indicated a potential loss of more than $14.5 million in funding for this year. We have had some success in the courts and have had $4 million restored, but the proposed cuts still total more than $10 million. It is a staggering number.
Because of this, Thresholds has taken the unfortunate but necessary steps of planning for reductions in services and staff in many of its programs. We have already suspended intake for new clients, and we will face several layoffs this week. Thresholds also will have to begin shutting the doors to some of its programs as early as July 15th if the budget situation is not resolved. In total, these cuts would result in laying off 180 staff and reducing our service capacity by 2,500 members a year. This would be tragic.
We the undersigned ask the legislature to return to Springfield as soon as possible, approve the $2.2 billion from the pension resolution to flow out for services immediate, sign bills that allow the federal stimulus money to flow to human services, prioritize human services once the FY10 budget is establish, and immediately restore the FY09 funding levels to those organizations.
