Don’t call budget shifting a cut

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Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM

Gov. Quinn’s proposed state budget is penny wise and pound foolish. It is clear that because of the state’s financial situation, cuts will have to be made, but the cuts the governor is proposing fall disproportionately on human services, especially on those that provide treatment and support for individuals living with mental illness, while the total budgets of most other agencies actually increase.

But cuts to mental health programs do not save money. What they do is reduce the number of people with mental illness getting treatment, ignoring the fact that the cost of untreated mental illness is very high.

But much of the cost of untreated mental illness doesn’t show up in the state budget. Instead it shows up at local hospitals, which bear the costs because so many people with mental illness have no medical insurance. Or it shows up in local courts and jails, which are paid for by local governments.

What happens is typically something like this: Police find a homeless person with a mental illness who is behaving strangely or who perhaps simply can’t care for himself. EMS personnel transport him to an emergency room where he is stabilized, and after a few days, released to begin the process again. Or the police take the person to jail and into the criminal justice system, where the person is held, again at local expense, for a few months and then put back on the street without treatment where the whole revolving door begins again.

So Gov. Quinn is not proposing cost savings by proposing cuts to mental health programs. Instead he is proposing to shift the costs of untreated mental illness to local communities. This is especially unfortunate, because treatments for mental illnesses work and cost much less than non-treatment.

Hugh Brady, president,

National Alliance

on Mental Illness,

Springfield

End this sweet deal

With all the talk about cutting expenditures, I have not heard one word about subsidies. It seems most of the proposed cuts will affect those least able to be heard.

Apparently sugar growers not only receive huge government support, but we subsidize their counterparts in Brazil as well. This ensures U.S. prices remain artificially high.

Juanita Jarard, Homewood

Swag bags in poor taste

Ah, the irony of it! On page 8A of Sunday’s edition, there were two articles about the current economic woes our country is facing.

The first article detailed how companies are working extra hard on efficiency to ride out these hard times, while the second explains how many people, in all lines of work, are forced to take more than one part-time job to make ends meet.

Then, one turns to page 19A to read of $75,000 gift bags full of expensive treats and luxury vacations given to Academy Award nominees.

Hello? Aren’t these the same people we already have high-paying, soul-satisfying employment? I would wager no nominee Sunday night was worrying about how to pay the rent or mortgage, or where the money for tomorrow’s breakfast was coming from.

Sour grapes? Maybe. But these grapes are hard to swallow when so many of us are in dire straits. Hollywood needs a dose of reality, and just a little lesson in good taste.

Victoria Rocus,

Oak Lawn