By BRETT ROWLAND - browland@nwherald.com
McHENRY – State budget cuts combined with economic woes could force the Pioneer Center for Human Services to make significant reductions to staff and services – the worst in two decades.Pioneer Center, a nonprofit organization that provides mental health and developmental disability services, learned that it could lose $240,276 in state funds.About $188,963 would be axed from the center’s development disabilities programs. An additional $41,313 would be shed from its mental health programs, President and CEO Lorraine Kopczynski said.Further cuts to the center’s grants, fees and services will result in a nearly 2 percent reduction of its $12 million annual budget.“It’s a desperate situation; we’re really hurting,” Kopczynski said. “We’re under-funded already.”The budget cuts will require Pioneer Center to stop taking on new clients immediately. That is a move that likely will frustrate many and result in even longer waiting lists for many services the center offers, Kopczynski said.Pioneer Center serves about 1,700 people each year through a variety of programs. Pioneer Center serves people with developmental disabilities, mental illness and brain injuries, and it provides intervention therapy for young children. It also operates programs for the homeless and for victims of sexual assault.Kopczynski has been going through the center’s budget line by line to find the best way to reduce costs without having to cut staff or reduce the number of people the agency serves.Vocational services and job skill programs could be hit hard.“These people are working to get off the welfare rolls,” she said. “What is going to happen if I have to make cuts?”Where and when the reductions could come isn’t clear. Kopczynski said she already had signed some service contracts for 2009. Those cannot be altered at this point, narrowing the range of items to put on the chopping block.Kopczynski said she would try to avoid staff layoffs, perhaps by reducing the number of employee hours.“We’re looking at what cuts need to be made now,” she said. “But I can’t sacrifice quality.”The center already is contemplating holding more fundraisers and looking at other ways to make up the budget shortfall. But with a slumping national economy, that could be difficult, Kopczynski said.Local elected officials were quick to point the finger at Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.“It’s a matter of the governor’s priorities,” said state Sen. Pamela Althoff, R-McHenry. “I’m extremely upset. What we see here is an administration that chooses to fund new programs and expand health care to the detriment of human services like Pioneer Center.”State Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, also blamed Blagojevich.“The governor’s cuts were disproportionately aimed at those who are least able to help themselves,” he said. “I voted to override the governor’s cuts, and now it is up to the Senate to get back and do the same thing.”Franks suggested pressuring Blagojevich on a local level.That’s something Kopczynski already has started. She said she had sent letters to local politicians and the governor and even would be reaching out to the presidential candidates for help.
Copyright © 2008 Northwest Herald. All rights reserved.
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