Gov. Bruce Rauner aide: Grant freezes for social services may continue - News - Rockford Register Star - Rockford, IL

 

-- A top aide for Gov. Bruce Rauner said grant freezes could continue for the rest of the current fiscal year as the administration tries to balance the budget.

Tim Nuding, Rauner's budget director, said at a Tuesday hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee that grant suspensions like the $26 million announced last week for the Department of Human Services would likely continue until the new fiscal year begins in July. The recent freeze has adversely affected several programs, including funding for The Autism Program.

Lawmakers passed a budget deal in March to fix the $1.6 billion deficit in the current fiscal year. It diverted $1.3 billion in special funds as well as implemented a 2.25 percent across-the-board cut to other parts of the budget.

Human Services sent a letter out April 3 to several agencies alerting them that grant funding would be frozen beginning April 6. Nuding said the budget deal required freezing some funds, and more could be frozen in the near future.

“Again, agencies are reviewing — I don’t know what those are yet — but there is the possibility that based on appropriation limits, we may have to look at other areas that to this date we have held harmless,” he said.

Nuding and Department of Human Services Acting Secretary Greg Bassi said the suspension would likely last until the end of the current fiscal year unless new revenue is found.

Russell Bonanno, director of The Autism Program’s statewide network, said the cuts were having a “calamitous impact across the state,” including full suspension of services in Rockford starting Friday. The Autism Program provides a bevy of services, including health screenings and education for children and parents.

Local families are feeling the squeeze. Whitney Rikas, a mother of two autistic children, said without TAP she would have a much harder time teaching her kids basic functions.

“If they’re just shut down completely, then obviously we won’t be able to go and it’ll impact both our boys’ life skills — just getting through the day and those things we need to know how to teach them,” she said. “And if they keep going without the funding, we’re not sure how we’re going to be able to afford it.”

Stephen Moseley, a 19-year-old with autism, was part of the social skills group at TAP. He presented a letter to the committee outlining why the program is so important to autistic children.

Moseley’s mother, former Springfield Democratic Rep. Vickie Moseley, said without the program, he likely would not have been able to even attend the committee meeting.

“The very fact that he’s been volunteering at TAP to work with younger kids, the fact that he was willing to write this letter and come with me today is a testament to TAP,” she said. “Believe me, when he was 9, I never saw that kind of situation happening.”

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