The ongoing budget crisis hobbling Illinois government was front and center in Springfield.
The state's "Budgeting for Results” commission is supposed to single out well-managed programs for the government to fund. The idea is that focusing funding makes the government more efficient.
But Vickie Smith was among several people who told commissioners that the state government workforce has gotten so small, it’s actually making things less efficient.
“I was at a meeting yesterday with people from the Department of Children and Family Services charged with protecting the most vulnerable in our state. And they are so devastated that it is extremely difficult for them even to get qualified people to apply, let alone get hired," she said.
Smith is director of the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
She says the state office overseeing hundreds of grants for agencies she represents (grants worth tens of millions of dollars) has the equivalent of one-and-a-half employees.
Eastern Illinois University Treasurer Paul McCann also expressed his concerns. He says nearly 400 layoffs have made it harder to comply with the increasing demands of state rules and regulations, including those associated with Budgeting for Results.
"There’s more and more for us to do, and less and less people to do it," he said.
McCann says Eastern’s layoffs represent about 30 percent of staff.
