State's Fiscal Issues Creates Cloudy Future for Children

Even after the largest tax increase that will add $7 billion to state coffers, Illinois still faces the prospect of not paying its bills.

Simultaneously, state cuts are impacting the areas that affect core services for infants all the way up to retirees.

The situation is as much a reflection of what is happening on the federal level as it at the state.

“We’re not out of the woods,” said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability in Chicago, which provides data-driven recommendations to drive debate on public policy.

“I’m hopeful things can be worked out with bi-partisan support if the legislators can stop sniping at one another.”

Martire was one of three speakers to address the question, “At Whose Cost? Our Children” at Sunday’s forum at the in Lake Forest sponsored by the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff League of Women Voters and Mothers Trust Foundation.

An online video of the forum will be posted on the League of Women Voters website, and the program will also be broadcast on Lake Forest Channel 9. Consult the League of Women Voters website for those days and times.

Martire spoke on the state’s financial picture, which former 59th District state representative Kathy Ryg, now president of Voices for Illinois Children, used to illustrate how recent cuts are diminishing the efforts to help children succeed as students. Finally, Kristi Long, president of the United Way of Lake County, spoke of how the agency has managed around the cuts to still create positive outcomes.

‘Spending Caps Are Irrelevant’

Even with the $7 billion generated by the income tax increase. Martire said Illinois is short of the spending cap of $42 billion.

“Spending caps are irrelevant,” he said. “We don’t have the revenue to spend on the caps.”

Martire said the state budget had $26 billion before the state tax and just over $33 billion with it, leaving the state still in arrears of $7 billion figuring in the unpaid bills from 2010 and another $2.8 billion he says the state owes but won’t admit to.

Martire said the state needs to expand its sales tax base to include consumer services, a proposal Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel suggested during his campaign to pump revenue into Chicago. Consumer services could include items like lawn service, haircuts, dog grooming, and bowling.

Coupled with taxing retirement income that Martire said would only impact 18 percent of retirees, the state could add about $2.5 billion in revenue.

“The support is there off the record,” Martire said of the Illinois legislature. “But the politics are so divisive, and taxes have become such a blunt instrument of politics that there is no ‘on the record’ discussion.”

Martire also suggested Gov. Pat Quinn should refinance the debt owed to agencies which provided services in 2010 and have yet to be paid. The debt would also include the $600 million still outstanding to school districts from last year.

“You don’t have to balance the budget by cutting, which impacts the human services areas,” Martire said.

Cuts Impact Pre-school and School-aged Kids

Martire said of the state’s general fund, 35 percent goes to education, 30 percent to health care, 21 percent to human services and 9 percent to public safety.  Of the $211 million cuts to the state budget, Martire said every fund except human services felt a nominal dollar increase.

Those cuts are felt acutely by the lower income families struggling to give their children basic necessities, which in turn impacts those children’s’ learning abilities prior to and after they enter school, according to Ryg.

Ryg said the state’s child poverty level is at its highest level (17 percent) since 1993 and threatens to grow to 19 percent by 2012. The child poverty level is a family of four living on $21,750 a year or $17,300 for a family with a single parent. Additionally, low-income enrollment in Illinois public schools has grown to 45.4 percent in 2009-10 for a family of four living on an income of $44,000 a year.

By 2012, one in four kids will be living in poverty in Illinois, Ryg said. She said these financial barriers make it particularly difficult for pre-school aged children to feel success at the academic level.

“If we continue to make major cuts and make it more difficult for families to qualify for programs, we are pulling the rug out from under them,” Ryg said, noting just 10 percent of the federal budget is invested in programs that benefit children and youth.

Illinois did institute preschool for all ages in 2008, but cuts to human services create obstacles like adequate health care for children and lead to other issues like child obesity, truancy, teen pregnancy and unprepared work force.

“We are really missing the mark if we don’t ask every day, ‘how are the children?’” she said.

Making a Difference

Despite 1,000 teens dropping out of Lake County high schools every year, United Way of Lake County has found ways to still reach families against a leaner budget that means more creative financing for programs through partnerships and corporate sponsors.

At Waukegan High School, Long said 50 percent of students do not have a computer at home. But through a program that included SWALCO as a partner, United Way was able to take computers normally sent to the scrap heap for parts and give them to families.

In addition, through support from corporate partners, United Way’s Home Visiting Program has been able to impact a greater number of families. The program, which costs just $2,000 a year per family, is geared to help parents learn to be their child’s first teacher, introduce more books in the home and assist in the children’s health care.

“These types of issues are not going to disappear in a year or two,” Long said. “They will be around for many years to come.”