By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Chicago-area Democrats in the Illinois House of Representatives are scheduled to hold a series of public hearings around the city this week on Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s recent vetoes of funding for HIV/AIDS services, schools and other programs.

“The governor’s savage cuts will have seriously adverse consequences for millions of Illinois residents,” House Speaker Mike Madigan said earlier this month.

Blagojevich cut more than $2 million in funding for HIV/AIDS programs, including allocations for Howard Brown Health Center, Better Existence with HIV, Chicago House, Bonaventure House and Vital Bridges. The governor also vetoed tens of millions slated for other healthcare programs, public schools and public works.

The governor’s spokespersons have offered a variety of reasons for the cuts, saying they were made because the programs were “wasteful,” “inefficient,” cost more than the state could afford or weren’t properly funded. But Democratic legislators allege that Blagojevich cut the program grants not on their merits but solely because they were sponsored by House Democrats, with whom the governor has been feuding all year.

“It’s a shame to me that the politics of all this has to be played out on the backs of the least vulnerable people in Illinois,” Ill. state Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) told CFP shortly after the vetoes were announced.

The public is urged to attend the hearings and voice their opinions about the cuts. House Democrats are still hopeful that they can override Blagojevich’s vetoes and pressure Senate President Emil Jones, an ally of the governor, to allow senators to vote on an override.

Hearings in Chicago on Gov. Blagojevich’s budget cuts are scheduled Sept. 26, 6:30 p.m., at Kennedy-King College Theatre, 6301 S. Halsted St.; Sept. 26, 6 p.m., at Austin Town Hall Auditorium, 5610 W. Lake St.; Sept. 27, 7 p.m., at Loyola University’s Mundelein Center Auditorium, 1020 W. Sheridan Road; and Sept. 27, 7 p.m., at Oak View Community Center, 4625 W. 110th St., Oak Lawn.