Bus Fumes

I kid you not, Governor Giveaway has some 'splaining to do. He can find $6 million to spend on the Museum of Broadcast Communication, but he doesn't have $380,000 to stop this:

With nine months of unpaid bills, one Illinois residential treatment center says it has no choice but to start discharging profoundly emotionally disturbed children.

Letters were sent this month to seven Chicago-area families, giving them 30 days to pick up their children.

"It was a very difficult decision … but the lack of payment is starting to affect other kids," said Debbie Reed, president and CEO of Chaddock, a residential treatment center in the downstate city of Quincy. "It's really a matter of stewardship."

The Illinois Department of Human Services owes Chaddock more than $370,000 for seven students in the state's Individual Care Grant program, which provides funding for residents with severe psychosis who cannot function at home. The facility has not been paid since September, "which makes it impossible for us to continue to serve ICG youth with no indication of when or if we may be paid," Reed wrote in the letter to parents.

Nor $1 million to pay for this...

The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School in Chicago's Hyde Park community is owed more than $1 million for its 20 ICG students, said co-director Diana Kon, who acknowledges she's under pressure from her board to also terminate services for kids with ICGs.

"I don't want to be the one who closes a school that has been open for 100 years," she said. "We are scrambling to keep the lights on, the doors open and services up and running."

While there are many youths across the state with behavioral issues, those supported by Individual Care Grants have generally failed at every previous placement, said Ray Connor of Oak Park, who started the ICG parents group almost a decade ago.

"These are the most severe kids who are placed here for safety issues," Connor said. "They require 24-hour supervision."

Mark my word, that asshole's going to use this as an excuse to raise taxes. He's an impulse purchaser with this state's tax dollars at the expense of every day budget items, and that simply must stop.

I'm not 100% nuts about Bill Brady and some of his far right whackadoodlery, but at least he's fiscally conservative.

I cannot and will not vote for Quinn in November. His irresponsible spending habits are everything that's wrong in Springfield in a nutshell.