Let The Purges Begins

Rahmses Wins

Again.

And as unemployed as I am, I can still feel deeply sad for all the good, gainfully-employed people I know in government service in Chicago who will now have to continue to live with Rahm's freshly-emboldened martinets and button men.

In other news, Governor Hedgefund began his week by thoroughly screwing disabled children, the poor and the indigent dead.  Which could come as a surprise to no one who had actually been paying strict attention to and taking seriously Governor Hedgefund's public statements, hiring decision and choice of friends.

State autism program's future uncertain after immediate cut by Rauner

By Dean Olsen, Staff Writer

Posted Apr. 6, 2015 at 7:53 PM
Updated Apr 6, 2015 at 8:27 PM

Hundreds of families in the Springfield area and thousands across the state face the possibility of abruptly losing services for their autistic children after an immediate $1 million budget cut by Gov. Bruce Rauner.

“It was totally unexpected,” Russell Bonanno, director of The Autism Program’s statewide network, said Monday at a news conference at TAP’s Springfield headquarters.

TAP, which is operated by Springfield-based Hope Institute for Children and Families, learned Friday afternoon that its state funding for the remaining three months of the fiscal year was suspended by Rauner as part of the Republican’s efforts to deal with a $1.6 billion shortfall for the current fiscal year.

State funds make services affordable for the 75 percent to 90 percent of TAP clients whose Medicaid coverage doesn’t pay for most services related to autism, a communication disorder, TAP spokesman Mark Schmidt said.
TAP officials said the action was a surprise because they thought they would be spared any cuts the remainder of this fiscal year.

Rauner has proposed to eliminate TAP’s entire $4.3 million in state funding for fiscal 2016, which begins July 1, and TAP officials are working to prevent that from happening by rallying public support.
Lawmakers misled?

House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, told lawmakers on the House floor in late March — before the House and Senate voted on a bipartisan plan to resolve the $1.6 billion shortfall — that state funding for TAP and many other programs for people with mental illness and developmental disabilities would be preserved this fiscal year.

The budget compromise included appropriation authority for TAP to operate through the close of the fiscal year, TAP officials said.

“It appears that Gov. Rauner has turned his back on the budget process for the remainder of this fiscal year, which he and legislative leaders negotiated and passed less than two weeks ago,” Bonanno said. “We can’t understand why he gave his word and then took this action.”

Rauner administration spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said Rauner didn’t go back on his word.
...