Quinn's Budget Scalpel

I do agree with Governor Quinn that some entitlement money should be cut. Years ago when I was more involved with social agencies in Peoria I counted over 70 tax-payer funded social agencies that dealt with teens and teen problems. At that time, I felt that some of these agencies should be combined and the community given information as to how much money was being spent per kid SERVED. And I don't mean how many kids were listed on inflated rosters as was the case on one of the boards on which I served.

With all these social agencies, it is and has been highly evident that far too many kids are falling through the "cracks" and into the Juvenile Court System and worse.

I do not know the budget of the Boys and Girls Club nor how much their administrator and staff is being paid but I do know that most of the people who send money to this organization are not aware that the former B & G headquarters was closed May 1, 2007, yet its location appeared on fund-raising advertising brochures as late as October 2008. The old headquarters is currently being used by the contractors building the Harrison school. It is my belief that the City of Peoria contributed $25,000, this request asked for by Councilmen Gulley and Turner, for a new roof for this building yet as of a month ago, no new roof. (Turner is the Councilman who never set foot in the basement of Lincoln Library yet put his name on a flier that said the "library basement was damp and dark" which could have been corrected by dropping the lights out of the ceiling and putting in a humidifier. He also admitted to me that he hadn't visited this library and twice cancelled appointments to go with me and see what he supported to the tune of millions of dollars on what will be a largely empty shell similar to the Southside Library where hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent including putting in an $80,000 elevator; the building and all now closed).

It reminds me of the time I was elected Treasurer of the Southside Development Association presided over by former Councilman James Polk. I asked how much money was in the treasury? The answer; no money. I was told to go see then City Manager Peter Korn and ask for money from the City. Mr. Korn informed me that the City had just given this organization $25,000. I went back to the group and asked where the money was. No one knew. At the next meeting I was voted out as treasurer.

Another tax-payer funded operation called Community Builders should bear more scrutiny. It started out with great hype, see positive articles starting in 2005 in the JS about Community Schools and the faith based Community Builders role. None of these programs have succeeded in spite of $150,000 seed money administrated by Joyce Banks. Target schools were to be Manual High, only activity is a not too well attended computer center with 20 computers and administrated by paid workers from Workforce Development, Trewyn, where the few kids who come and go at will, mainly eat, cut up and play basketball. No adults ever show up for after school activities with their kids according to the janitors and my own personal visits. Garfield, I know of no after school activities attended by kids and parents. Perhaps they do.

I know that the new Harrison School is hyped to be a community center. Why did they need to wait on a new school when they couldn't even keep the B & G Headquarters open and never gave the now closed Southside Library, a chance? As to Harrison, we will see a couple years after it has opened.

Back in January 2000, a person named Beverly Prevette of Peoria had a LTE printed by the JS, "Teen-agers have needs Peoria's leaders aren't addressing". Boy were you correct, Beverly. But don't worry, the new unpaid for zoo and the yet to be built museum will take care of that problem. Oh, you need to PAY to get in these places? I see.

Yes, I know we have some programs that appear to engage a number of kids out of the 20,000 or more in Peoria, but we lead the state, or are in the top 3, in teen age venereal diseases, single mothers, drug dealing and teen crime and unwed pregnant girls.

And dropouts. And welfare recipients. And we are going to look after the old with a $56 million new reduced room nursing home that will house up to 150 or so Medicaid residents to complement our new museum, a new hotel while existing ones appear to be closing, the fairly new ballpark, not too well attended according to the media, the new underutilized zoo (the new $5 million parking lot never got built and after a year and one giraffe death, it doesn't appear one is needed), underutilized expanded and new $27 million libraries (think of the new edifice rising along side Rt. 6 and less than 5 miles from the new expanded underutilized Dunlap Library)all built or being built with borrowed money, plus other amenities..........like trails??

All of these financed because we DON'T have the money including our new schools at Glen Oak and Harrison, both recommended to be closed. Who said that? Go back and read the 3 day Summitt community input meeting report or read my blog dated May 3, 2002 or better yet, get a copy of the Summitt report from #150 administration. Perhaps by now our new Superintendent Lathan has read through the numerous studies made since year 2000.

Negative? No, I just keep all these records in my filing system filled with broken promises and missed projections.