Week of July 19, 2017 Vol 36 • No 36 • www.thechicagocitizen.com
Weekly
South Suburban
Governmental Affairs
7TH ANNUAL COLLEGE CHANGES EVERYTHING CONFERENCE WILL ADDRESS EFFORTS TO EQUIP ALL STUDENTS FOR POSTSECONDARY SUCCESS + P3 Audit Bureau of Circulation ABC AUDITED
Member
Commentary
THROW THE DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY WIDE OPEN FOR OUR YOUTH P3
Business 60 PERCENT OF EMPLOYERS PLAN TO HIRE FULL-TIME, PERMANENT EMPLOYEES IN THE SECOND HALF OF 2017 P4
Church WEEKLY INSPIRATIONS FROM REV. DR. DERRICK B. WELLS, SENIOR MINISTER OF CHRIST UNIVERSAL TEMPLE
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DONATE A STURDY NEW BACKPACK AND RECEIVE FREE MUSEUM ADMISSION
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Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) is one of many social service organizations who were affected during the state budget impasse in Illinois. Today, it’s still owed $6 million dollars in state funding. Photo Credit: Photo Credit: Allen Bourgeois/LSSI
ILLINOIS HAS A NEW BUDGET, BUT SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS STILL LACK STATE FUNDING By Christopher Shuttlesworth
L
awmakers in Illinois may have passed a new state budget after overriding Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto, but Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI), one of the largest statewide nonprofit social service organizations, says it’s still paying a price for Illinois’ recent budget crisis. The crisis took a toll on social service organizations like LSSI where today it still lacks state funding. In trying to compensate for the state’s inability to pay unpaid bills for LSSI programs, LSSI Chief Executive Officer Mark Stutrud said in a 2016 press release that the organization was relying heavily on a bank line of credit as well as on the organization’s own resources. During the crisis and without a budget, LSSI had to make vital program cuts and stopped providing services to 4,700 people so the organization could still offer most of its other social service programs. Barb Kraeger Hailey, who is the Director of Communications and Advancement at LSSI said the majority of the programs and staff cuts mainly affected senior
homecare programs. Hailey added the nonprofit social service organization was employing 1,700 people back in January, 2016, but was forced to cut 750 employees and 30 homecare programs. Still outstanding is $6 million dollars in state funding that remains owed to LSSI. “We made those program cuts,” Hailey said. “It was very difficult to do that and it was a thorough and painful process. But we really had to look for what was there for the long-term health of the organization to be able to continue to provide the majority of the services that we provide.” Hailey said since 2016, LSSI has restructured the organization and has managed to employ 1,000 staff members to ensure that most of the mental health, foster-care and other programs remain in place. The majority of the programs that LSSI closed were directly linked to programs that weren’t receiving any money at all from the state. Currently, Illinois’ unpaid bills are estimated to be at $15 billion, but Abdon Pallasch, director of communications for Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget is planning to see how much of
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