Area residents say Governor Bruce Rauner needs to leave child care and medical programs off the financial chopping block.
Child care providers and parents gathered in Peoria to oppose looming service cuts and called for ways to boost revenue. East Peoria resident Meghann Schwartz’s young son gets home medical care through a state program to help with complications from Down’s Syndrome. She says funding cuts put that program at risk, and carries financial consequences:
“It costs an average of $8,800 a month in nursing care to keep children like my son Caleb at home, but it costs six times as more, over $56,000 to keep them in the hospital.”
Rauner has said funding and program reductions are needed to help right-size the state’s finances.
State Senator Dave Koehler says Governor Rauner and lawmakers need to pass a long-term spending plan this summer, despite the partisan finger-pointing:
“Let’s be honest we’re not that far apart. The governor’s introduced budget was unbalanced by about $3 billion as was the budget that the Democrats in the General Assembly passed in order to get our priorities down on paper.”
Different groups and residents are calling on both Rauner and the General Assembly to pass a long-term spending plan without drastic reductions to their programs.