By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

A slowing economy is no reason for the Illinois government to ignore the needs of private agencies that provide social services under state contract, according to an open letter from religious leaders.

The letter, signed by Cardinal George, Bishop Kenneth Olsen of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and other leaders, was scheduled to be released May 3.

It is part of a campaign to persuade legislators to include a 4 percent cost-of-doing-business increase in the budget for human service agencies, including Catholic Charities, Maryville Academy and other Catholic organizations. The budget proposed by Gov. George Ryan includes no increase for the private agencies.

“It’s a very frustrating experience to have to go to the legislature year after year to ask for a minimum increase,” said Doug Delaney, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois, the public policy arm of the church in Illinois. “The state of Illinois, more than any other, has entrusted its social services to private agencies like Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services. It’s unfair to provide an increase for all the other state agencies, including the legislature, and not the social service agencies.”

A 4 percent increase would mean finding about $120 million more for human services in the state’s $50 billion budget, Delaney said.

For Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, a 4 percent increase would “just help us tread water,” said Walter Ousley, the agency’s director of operations. Not getting the increase would mean a loss of more than $1 million for Catholic Charities human services programs, he said.

“We can’t absorb that kind of loss,” Ousley said. “We would have to look at cutting back on some of our services.”

Last year, social service agencies got a a 2.5 percent increase, up from the 1 percent Ryan included in his proposed budget. But it was not enough to stop Catholic Charities of Chicago from eliminating 61 jobs and closing and consolidating some programs.

The Catholic Conference of Illinois has formed a coalition with several other organizations to push for the 4 percent increase this year.

At a press conference April 16, coalition leaders said private agencies are fighting a decade-long, 15 percent decrease in the purchasing power of state funding for community agencies.

Many state agencies have a 4 percent increase in their proposed budgets for supplies, commodities and auto use this year, the coalition noted, but the state budget calls for no increase for social service agencies.

At the same time, private social service agencies generally pay their staff members much less than state agencies pay, making it difficult to attract and retain qualified professionals.

Ousley said it’s a difficult climate to get money from the legislature this year, with projected income tax revenue down and Medicaid costs up. He hopes the income projections are wrong and that President Bush will support more Medicaid funding for Illinois.

“From the legislators’ point of view, everyone’s got their hands out,” Ousley said. “From our point of view, we are trying to help the state meet its responsibility to its most vulnerable citizens. We are competing (for money) on behalf of our clients, not on behalf of Catholic Charities.”

The lack of adequate funding increases has made it difficult for non-profit agencies to attract and retain staff and to pay their employees fairly. A 4 percent increase in funding would not close the wage gap between private agency workers and state workers.

The open letter echoes the theme,

“It is unacceptable,” the letter says, “that many of the direct care workers in our state who serve needy people are unable to earn an adequate living.”