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Illinois Agencies Push for Passage of H.R. 922

People
Brad Palmer, WSIU Radio
(left to right) Deborah Gates, Bill Sasso, Shelly Ebbert and Miriam Link-Mullison at Monday's news conference at the Jackson County Health Dept.

Illinois agencies suffering through the budget impasse are urging lawmakers to approve a House Resolution.

The non-binding H.R. 922 declares support for a budget that chooses revenue over cuts.
Jackson County Health Department director Miriam Link-Mullison says it's unbelievable the governor and lawmakers have allowed the budget standoff to continue for more than nine months. She says the state owes her department about 500-thousand dollars. Link-Mullison says if the stalemate continues into the next fiscal year, they will have to look at which state funded services they can no longer provide.

"It's hard to decide which is the highest priority of the ways in which we protect the public's health, which impacts the most people, which isn't being offered somewhere else."

Link-Mullison says the nine–month old impasse has forced her to reduce her workforce, which in turn, reduces the alarm system for the region.

"It is public health who connects the dots, who sees that this particular case and this particular case of a communicable disease are connected. We investigate those cases and identify that we have a disease outbreak and there are steps we can take to prevent that from spreading."

Shelly Ebbert is regional director for Addus Home Care. She says the state owes her company millions of dollars, which isn't sustainable.

"Where things are now, our agency alone serves about 19-thousand seniors in the state of Illinois. We're not getting paid for a third of them. We can't continue to do that."

Deborah Gates is the president and founder of Expressions of Faith, an organization started in 2005 that mainly serves the low-income, multi-cultural population in the area. She says it's time for Illinoisans to voice their displeasure.

"What is that saying...'Bad things only happen when good people stay quiet?' If we don't say something, we're going to lose our jobs as well. We're going to lose our community."

Link-Mullison, Ebbert and Gates were part of a news conference Monday calling on State Representatives John Bradley and Terri Bryant to sign off on House Resolution 922. A hearing on H.R. 922 is scheduled for Wednesday in the House Subcommittee on Finance.

 

As a news producer and news anchor on All Things Considered, Brad provides the listeners with a recap of the day's top local and state news as well as breaking news at any given time. Contact WSIU Radio at 618-453-6101 or email wsiunews@wsiu.org
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