budget

The Responsible Budget Coalition’s “We Can’t Wait” Campaign is now underway! Show lawmakers and everyone else how we are all hurt by the state's broken budget.

This campaign gives you an easy way to tell your story AND to mobilize your community to take action in support of tax reform that will (1) raise revenue and (2) make taxes fairer.

Check out the campaign video here!

The Illinois House Appropriations-Human Services Committee held a hearing on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) funding on Friday, January 22, 2010 at James R. Thompson Center. Check out videos of advocate testimonials detailing the impact of cuts in funding for HIV care, prevention, and housing services as well as the rising need for HIV/AIDS medications provided through ADAP.

Watch all of the videos here.

Tell Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to include $18 million in new HIV funding in his fiscal year 2011 state budget.  Your voice is needed now to restore funding for programs that are being cut today and avert even more devastating cuts next fiscal year. 

Sign the letter to Gov. Pat Quinn asking him to fully fund the HIV sector in his budget proposal!

This year, Illinois salvaged the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) by cutting funding from other vital HIV state programs. This tactic will accelerate the state’s long-term HIV/AIDS crisis by weakening prevention and care programs that help to curb the epidemic.  An $18 million budget increase will protect all essential services—including HIV prevention, care, housing and ADAP—from crushing budget reductions.

Ariana was kind enough to include a post from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago's Johnathon Briggs and John Peller about the City of Chicago's proposed public health budget cuts:

On July 16, more than two weeks after the beginning of the new state fiscal year, the Illinois General Assembly sent Governor Pat Quinn a state budget plan that largely avoids massive social service funding cuts.  Governor Quinn almost immediately signed the bills into law.

Nine days into the new fiscal year, Illinois still doesn’t have a state budget in place.  What does this mean for people living with HIV/AIDS and other special needs? Without state funds, agencies can’t afford to keep the staff that provides essential services to Illinoisans with complex health conditions.

Coalition Supports Quinn’s Veto Pledge
No vacation for lawmakers until they pass 12-month budget that is morally and fiscally responsible, group says

via Chi-Town Daily News
by Alex Parker

by John Bouman, President, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, via The Shriver Brief