Backgrounder #2 for April 9 Media Advisory
"Stepping up to the (Budgetary) Plate"
How the Governor's 2004 state budget will impact people with disabilities

Key facts and funding issues: The financial state of community-based human services for people with disabilities in Illinois is in critical condition.

• Anixter Center joins its state association, Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, in supporting Gov. Blagojevich’s effort to better utilize available Medicaid funding. This issue is particularly critical at a time when Medicaid funding is in danger of being significantly reduced.

• The U.S. Supreme Court asserted in its Olmstead decision (1999) that it was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act to force people to live in institutions and not provide them community-based options. Despite the ruling - and the exceedingly high demand from consumers - the community-based service system in Illinois is drastically under-funded. Many people with disabilities consider the fair implementation of the Olmstead decision to be a civil rights issue.

• Illinois ranked 47 th in the amount of funding for community-based care to people with developmental disabilities in 2002, down from 39 th in 2000. Illinois ranks 30 th in community-based funding for individuals with mental illness. (Source: Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities.)

• In 2002, the House Human Services Appropriations Committee, 92 nd General Assembly acknowledged, through Resolution 535, that Illinois has fallen woefully behind many other states in transitioning individuals with disabilities into community-based care. The resolution states that community-based services are now funded at only 65 percent of their cost, the result of a slow deterioration over many years.

• Between 2000 and 2003, many key costs of doing business in Illinois have increased substantially; for example: health insurance premiums (40 percent); natural gas and utilities (35 percent); motor fuel (15 percent); and worker’s compensation premiums (19 percent), while the funding increase to community-based providers from the Department of Human Services was only 4.1 percent. (Source: Illinois Association of Rehabilitation Facilities.)

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The mission of the Lester and Rosalie Anixter Center is to assist people with disabilities to live and work successfully in the community. Anixter Center is a leading provider of high-quality vocational, residential and educational options, substance abuse prevention and treatment, and health care. Anixter Center is an advocate for the rights of people with disabilities to be full and equal members of the community.