Nearly 2,000 State employees, seven community in Illinois and thousands of people who deal with mental disabilities and illnesses got good news from the State of Illinois, thanks to a little creative bookkeeping.
Tinkering with the budget of State officials to come up with extra money that Governor Pat Quinn may use to run seven State facilities she had planned to begin closing in a day. They also run the money to come up with more money to substance abuse services, community mental health programs and even funeral for indigent people.
Some of the money for the facility available as Quinn uses the power of veto earlier this year to cut education spending, especially the $ 89 million to help pay for school buses. Officials also found surplus money in a special fund that helps support the government pension system. Struggling to get the full amount of the pension to which they were promised, but an additional $ 95 million would be considered more urgent in other programs.
Other cuts raise questions about why some of the money ever entered into the budget at all.
For example, the Illinois death penalty abolished in January, but the budget was signed in June still includes money to pay legal costs of capital cases. Now officials have decided they can reallocate the $ 6.1 million by cutting the.