Illinois suspends funerals for poor :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Lifestyles

Illinois is one of a handful of states that offers funding for funerals for the indigent

Illinois pays about $15 million a year for about 10,000 funerals for the poor.

That money -- $1,103 that goes to the funeral home, $552 for the cemetery -- can make the difference between a modest service and a burial in a potter's field,….A funeral home makes "maybe 50 bucks" on these burials,  "by the time you pay the transportation to pick up the body, transportation out to the cemetery, the embalming, plus the casket."

payment for funerals held after July 1 will be pushed to the budget year that begins July 1, 2010.

Funeral directors predicted bodies will begin piling up at medical examiner's offices.

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Illinois lawmakers likely back next week to re-think tax hike | Political Fix | STLtoday

 

Quinn’s office is still being coy about whether he will officially call them back next week — though, again, it’s difficult to see how he won’t, given the looming July 1 start of the new fiscal year

Scuttlebutt all over Springfield today is that Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will call state legislators back to town next week to take one more attempt at passing his proposed state income tax to address a massive budget deficit.

Illinois lawmakers likely back next week to re-think tax hike | Political Fix | STLtoday

Northwest Herald | Local agencies bracing for cuts

Some of the cuts anticipated in social services in McHenry County.

On July 1, the Illinois Federation of Families might have to close its doors. And the Pioneer Center for Human Services might have to stop serving about 300 clients.

The state Department of Human Services, one agency that funds the agencies, faces $2.24 billion in cuts.

Northwest Herald | Local agencies bracing for cuts

Hope and experience -- chicagotribune.com

It is obvious that the fight regarding changing health care is going to be long and hard.  Read where the Tribune currently stands on the issue.

 

a government-run health plan? Experience says that cure would be worse than the illness.

As many as 119 million of the 172 million Americans who are privately insured would switch from private to public coverage if the public plan were similar to Medicare

Hope and experience -- chicagotribune.com

Northwest Herald | 10,000 state employees could lose jobs

That's the number Gov. Pat Quinn's administration is talking about as officials try to pressure lawmakers to pass an income tax increase to prevent billions of dollars in service cuts.

Northwest Herald | 10,000 state employees could lose jobs