Senator Shares Good Budget News From Springfield
Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins
Published: August 5, 2015
At a time when hope is wearing thin for many of our most vulnerable residents, I have some good news to share with you. Today, the Senate passed legislation to allow $4.8 billion in federal funding to be used for purposes such as energy bill assistance, infant nutrition, cancer screenings, substance abuse treatment, developmental disabilities services and job training. Legislators on both sides of the aisle agreed to release these dollars while continuing to negotiate on the contested $7 billion remaining in the state's budget.
As a public servant, I uphold and fight for the democratic values that define this state and nation. Justice and equality demand that the people and their representatives not ignore the needs of those who cannot care for themselves or advocate for themselves.
Yet in the ongoing state budget impasse, their needs have been ignored in shocking ways - frail senior citizens denied home care services, at-risk youth with nowhere to go after school but the streets, a day care center for children with HIV/AIDS threatened with closure and families whose medically fragile infants must have expensive, specialty formulas told that at the end of this week, they will be on their own. In one of the most frustrating developments of the past few months, inflexibility on the part of Governor Rauner and his allies kept federal resources already being sent to Illinois from being used for essential services, such as the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, simply because there was no legal authorization to spend them.
I was proud to vote my values today. I urge my colleagues to continue to push for a budget resolution that recognizes our shared moral responsibility to assist and uplift those in need.
Sincerely,
Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins
16th District – Illinois
District Office
1155 West 79th Street • Chicago, IL 60620
773-224-2830 (Phone) • 773-224-2855 (Fax)
Posted in Auburn Gresham in the News, Business, Housing, Economic Development