IL Budget woes could threaten Veterans' Home

QUINCY, Ill. (WGEM) — Illinois lawmakers were back at work Wednesday, but they made little progress toward closing the state’s massive budget gap. The state is facing $12 billion dollar deficit but lawmakers can’t agree on whether to raise taxes to help fill that hole.

Governor Pat Quinn says without a tax increase the state will be forced to cut services, and one agency on the chopping block could be the Veterans’ Home right here in Quincy.

The home has about 450 residents, and employs about 500 people.

But with Illinois’ budget in question, so are the services and jobs provided at the vets home.

According to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn if lawmakers don’t raise income taxes, they’ll be forced to pass what he’s calling a "doomsday" budget that would cut spending by 37 percent.

The Governor says those cuts would directly affect state services and could mean closing all four state veterans’ homes, including the Quincy home.

(Jim Mentesti) "I’m told by sources that between payroll and product that they buy through vendors to serve the home, and to serve the clients that are there, that the economic impact is probably somewhere in the area of $40 million," says Jim Mentesti, Director of the Great River Economic Development Foundation.

But it’s not just the city that would be affected if the vets home closed.

The men and women who work at the home would be out of a job, and the military veterans who live there would have to find a new place to call home.

(Whitey Pohlman) "Those people have been promised the Veterans’ home and the facilities out there, and they definitely want to keep it, of course," says Whitey Pohlman, a World War II veteran and member of several area veterans organizations.

He says he’s confident Illinois lawmakers will make the right decision when it comes to keeping the veterans’ home in Quincy and veterans’ services throughout the state funded. 

"They’re going to have to do something," says Pohlman.  "Or like I told my wife, they better have had a good day job because they’re going to be back at it."

The current Illinois budget expires June 30th.

Governor Quinn says a 1 and half percent income tax increase is necessary to fill the state budget gap and keep state run agencies, like the Veterans’ home, funded.