As the Illinois political freak show drags on — the State is now closer to NEXT year’s budget deadline than the one they already missed in July — the painful writhing of those most in need continues. In a nutshell (the perfect word), this week’s latest, via Mark Brown’s columns (three in a row — Thank you Mark Brown) in the Chicago SunTimes:
Monday: State budget mess ‘a nightmare’ for autistic man and his family, where a family is told they must relocate their son from his group home (aka HOME) in Wisconsin and bring him back to, well, nothing in Illinois (which is why Illinois paid for the out-of-state placement in the first place — a tacit admission that the state sucks for adults with disabilities).
Tuesday: Budget fiasco threatens to shatter happiness of man with fragile X syndrome, more of the same.
Wednesday: Munger says she’ll seek funding for disabled. Hallelujah, a Springfielder — Leslie Munger, the State’s Comptroller — saves the day, or at least keeps it from getting worse. Brown: “Munger said she believes the problem stems from confusion surrounding the patchwork of consent decrees and court orders under which the state continues to pay many of its bills during the budget impasse.” When I miss a bill payment, I’m in trouble. When Illinois misses a bill payment, we’re in trouble.
Illinois — we eat our own.