Hundreds of area workers and residents gathered in Peoria Wednesday to voice concern amid looming state cuts. Governor Bruce Rauner is proposing program or funding reductions for childcare, energy assistance and job training. Nancy Custer is a home care worker. She says Rauner is calling to raise eligibility scores to qualify seniors for the care programs:
“Can we afford to out these seniors in a nursing home, can we afford for all these individuals who care for these seniors to be on unemployment? I think that’s costing the state more than what the program is already.”
Custer says that raising the score could force thousands of seniors across the state from getting access to home care. State Senator Dave Koehler and Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth hosted the gathering at the Peoria Public Library main Branch.