Gov. Pat Quinn's call for new state revenues this week comes at a time when Springfield-area social-service agencies remain hamstrung by delays in payments from state government.
"This is about the worst that it has gotten," said Carlissa Puckett, executive director of Sparc, a Springfield-based agency that serves 700 people with developmental disabilities.
Quinn told The State Journal-Register editorial board Thursday that $900 million freed up by a recent state bond issue might hasten state payments to some organizations and businesses.
But Quinn said he didn't know who would benefit from the borrowing, how much relief they'd receive and when they would receive it.
As a long-term solution, Quinn, who is being challenged by Comptroller Dan Hynes in the Feb. 2 Democratic primary for governor, has called for a 50 percent increase in the state income tax.
"As long as ... we don't have enough revenue to balance the budget, there will be waits, there's no doubt about it," he said. "I don't like that. I'm the one person saying it's time to deal with this. I have the guts to tell everybody that before an election."
Sparc is owed $1.5 million from the state. The agency has had to dip into a line of credit with a bank to keep programs operating and pay its 200 employees.
Puckett said she is grateful that Quinn and General Assembly avoided draconian cuts to human-service programs statewide in 2009, when they freed up $2.2 billion for those programs by borrowing a total of $3.4 billion. But she said payment delays have persisted.
Springfield-based Senior Services of Central Illinois has laid off 23 people, almost one-third of its staff, since July.
"Everything is attributed to the lack of cash flow," said Karen Schainker, Senior Services executive director. "We're operating right now on a shoestring."
Senior Services, which has a $2.6 million budget to provide programs in Sangamon, Logan, Mason and Menard counties, is waiting for $400,000 in overdue state funding.
Schainker said the 38,400 seniors who visit the agency's Springfield Senior Center and benefit from food assistance and other programs haven't noticed the staff cuts, at least not yet.
That's because the agency's remaining staff members are hustling to make sure the vacancies don't disrupt services, she said. The staff also has gone without a pay increase and dealt with cuts in mileage reimbursement.
Schainker said the governor and state lawmakers "need to do their job and not play political games."
The boards of Sparc and Senior Services have endorsed a state income tax increase. So has the board of the Children's Advocacy Centers of Illinois, according to Joseph Goulet, executive director of the Sangamon County Child Advocacy Center.
Child advocacy centers help prosecute people accused of abusing children. Some centers haven't received promised state funding since June 2009 and are "struggling tremendously," Goulet said.
Sangamon County's center, which operates with a $425,000 annual budget, is waiting on $50,000 in state funding, he said. Because the center is part of Sangamon County government, the office has been able to deal with the delay, but that can't go on indefinitely, he said.
Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.
More state employees having to pay up-front for health care
Doctors and other health-care providers increasingly are asking -- and in some cases demanding - that state workers and others insured through Illinois state government pay for treatment in advance, according to a state employee union spokesman.
"We hear from members who are told to basically front money for the state," said Anders Lindall, spokesman for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Most of the late payments involve people covered by the state's self-insured plans, Lindall said. Those plans are operated through Cigna Corp., Health Alliance, Humana Benefit Plan of Winnebago and HealthLink OAP, according to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
At one point last year, officials said the state's expected cost of health coverage is underfunded by $600 million, or 46 percent, in the current fiscal year. The delay averaged 200 days last fall.
A total of 161,193 people living inside and outside Illinois are covered by the self-insured plans, while 186,933 people are covered through managed-care plans such as Health Alliance HMO, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, Personal Care and Humana, state officials said.
The state stopped paying monthly premiums to those plans last fall. Payments resumed in December.
However, the state still hasn't taken care of the three months of payments it failed to make last year to Health Alliance, said Scott McAdams, the plan's director of government relations. Each monthly payment is about $33 million, he said.
Health Alliance kept paying medical bills during the months it wasn't being paid, McAdams said.
-- Dean Olsen
Payment delays hit home to Bluffs woman
Armilla Berry has seen first-hand effects of state government's delays in paying health insurance bills for some employees and retirees.
Berry, 87, lives near Bluffs and receives dental coverage from the state because her late husband formerly worked at what is now the Jacksonville Developmental Center.
Berry was surprised when a dentist who performed root canals on her in October and November requested full payment at the time of service. She put the cost, a total of $1,520, on her credit card. She has submitted paperwork to the state for reimbursement, but hasn't been paid yet.
Karen Nobis, an assistant in the Jacksonville office of that dentist, Dr. Eldon Barrowes, said Barrowes asks but doesn't demand full payment on the spot. He has started to ask for the money because of five-month delays in payment from the state, Nobis said.
Berry said she hopes lawmakers pass a tax increase to ease the government's cash crunch.
"That's the only way we're going to get anything done," she said.
-- Dean Olsen
