A protest rally that worked
by Beth
Members of organizations representing a wide range of disabilities joined people with disabilities in Chicago on February 24th to rally against Governor Quinn’s proposed budget cuts in human services. Mental health care, development disability services and centers for independent living would have all been affected by Quinn’s $1 billion in proposed cuts.
The advocacy groups were also protesting major cuts in human services for the current fiscal year. and guess what? Their voices were heard! Quinn announced later Thursday that he would halt half of the human services cuts for this year, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune.
Quinn’s budget office and the human services officials recently informed social service providers of planned cuts totaling $208 million. But on Thursday, the size of the cuts was reduced to about $100 million. Quinn said he had concerns about the fairness of how programs were targeted for cutbacks.
Thank you to the thousands of people who went out yesterday and made their voices heard. Sounds like it worked!