Governor Bruce Rauner’s budget address seemed to engender two primary responses: Those who support his message and those who indict it. Peoria Public Radio's Tanya Koonce reports:
The Illinois Manufacturers Association applauded it. The Illinois Policy Institute praised it and so did the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. But home health care works disagreed.
Nancee Custer works for Community Care. She picketed with other home health care workers yesterday outside Lutheran Social Services in Peoria. Cluster says the budget gridlock is the Governor’s fault:
“He’s blaming the democrats because they are not going along with what he wants, his personal agenda. [He] thinks it’s going to help us all and it’s hurting us and it’s continuing to hurt us, and he doesn’t get it," Custer said."He’ll never get it because he’s a wealthy man and can’t even begin to relate to any of us.”
Custer and other home care workers say it’s sad Lutheran Social Services is closing. But they say it’s only a matter of time before others have to close too. They say they are afraid they may lose their jobs next. That would mean the people they provide in-home personal assistance to would immediately be moved to a nursing home.