Last night, the Senate passed a budget (check it out here). House Bill 109 Amendment #2 (with a vote of 54 yeas and 2 nays) now goes to the House for approval. Once the House approves it will be sent to the Governor for signature.
The budget is more than 1200 pages, but here are some of the highlights:
- DSP wage increase – 50 cents has been included and we are happy to see the increase building on last year’s 75 cent. However, we know that this will not fix the staffing crisis nor will this even keep up with Cook County’s minimum wage increase for next year.
- Restoration of funding for DD grants including Life Span, The Autism Program, Epilepsy, Best Buddies, Respite Services, which were funded in previous years but was cut over the past two years by almost 10 percent.
- Restoration of the dental grant for people with developmental disabilities. This had been eliminated a few years ago.
The budget expects $38.5 billion in revenue approximately $600 million more revenue than the Governor’s introduced FY19 budget at $37.9 billion. It appears that much of the human services sector funding was restored. We will try to pull together a more comprehensive analysis in the next day or two.
Thanks for all the great advocacy efforts. With your help people with disabilities continue to have receive funding in the state budget and hopefully will see an expansion of service options.
Meg Cooch
Executive Director
The Arc of Illinois
20901 S. LaGrange Rd. Suite 209
Frankfort, IL 60423
815-464-1832 (OFFICE)
Meg@thearcofil.org