Illinois Governor Pat Quinn was able to salvage nearly all state funding for HIV services for the 2010 fiscal year, the Windy City Times reports.
According to the article, the governor was given $3.4 billion in unallocated funds from the FY10 budget, which passed July 15. Quinn gave $40 million to the Illinois Department of Public Health, $17 million of which will be spent on HIV/AIDS programming. In addition to the money already earmarked in the state budget, this replenishes HIV/AIDS funding to 97.4 percent of previous levels.
However, Illinois is not out of financial trouble yet. The plan revealed that the state has no strategy for funding about $1.4 billion in unmet needs or the $3.9 billion it owes to mostly small nonprofit HIV/AIDS service providers.
The AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s John Peller notes that if the state continues down this road, the budget deficit is expected to reach $10 billion within a year. “At this point, lawmakers must entertain mechanisms to increase the state’s tax base in ways that protect Illinois’s vulnerable, low-income residents.”
