By Gary Barlow

Staff writer

Eight North Side state representatives listened Sept. 28 as county prosecutors, healthcare officials, principals, teachers, parents and others described the local community programs hurt by Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s $470 million in cuts to the Illinois budget in late August.

“This is what happens when politics triumphs over policies,” Rep. John Fritchey (D-Chicago) told the crowd of about 250 that gathered at Loyola University’s Mundelein Center to urge legislators to override Blagojevich’s vetoes.

Blagojevich slashed funding for HIV/AIDS, the developmentally disabled, public education, public safety, county prosecutors and more when he announced amendatory vetoes to the 2008 Illinois budget passed overwhelmingly by the Illinois House and Senate. Much of the money cut by the governor’s veto pen were initiatives sponsored by Democratic state representatives, with whom Blagojevich has feuded. Conversely, the governor left virtually untouched initiatives supported by House Republican representatives.

He also didn’t veto programs sponsored by Senate Democrats, and a few days after the vetoes were announced Senate President Emil Jones stood beside the governor and said he would not allow the Senate to vote on motions to override the governor’s vetoes, breaking his promise to other legislative leaders.

Blagojevich has described the programs he vetoed as “pork,” “wasteful,” inefficient” and money the state can’t afford. He’s also said he wants to go around the Legislature and use the vetoed funds to pay for a huge expansion of health coverage for Illinois residents. When he asked the Legislature to pass such a program earlier this year it was defeated on a unanimous vote.

The lawmakers at the Loyola hearing last week said the allocations for local, community-based programs that were cut by the governor are a classic example of how representative government ought to work.

“I think that I and my other colleagues think that you and the people in the community are best able to decide what our local priorities should be,” Rep. Greg Harris (D-Chicago) told the audience at Loyola.

Rep. Harry Osterman (D-Chicago) noted the work he and other legislators put in to listen to their constituents when they plan state spending.

“All of us up here on the stage worked very hard to craft a budget that we felt reflected the needs of the people of Illinois,” Osterman said.

Officials from agency after agency described the programs they’d have to cut—HIV education, model services for the autistic, after-school programs and others—as the hearing went on well into the night.

“Some of these vetoes were devastating to social service agencies,” said Rep. Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago).

Chicago’s GLBT community health agency, Howard Brown Health Center, lost $100,000 slated to fund HIV prevention, including outreach to the GLBT youths it serves at Broadway Youth Center. Altogether, Blagojevich cut more than $1 million in grants to community-based HIV/AIDS programs.

“The project that was vetoed by Gov. Blagojevich goes directly to the heart of HIV prevention in Chicago,” said HBHC’s Beau Gratzer.

Officials from the governor’s office were not at the hearing, one of several that Democratic legislators held around Chicago last week. Afterwards, the governor’s office issued a statement stating that the programs were vetoed because “the General Assembly didn’t include enough revenues to meet the state’s healthcare and education needs.”

Asked why initiatives supported by House Democrats were cut across the board, Justin DeJong, a spokesman for the governor, said, “The member initiatives were evaluated based on available resources. …If there are member initiatives that legislators feel strongly about it’s important for them to work closely with the governor’s office to make sure they get funded.”

Blagojevich has not responded to questions about his vetoes.

Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie) bluntly disagreed with some of the governor’s characterizations of the vetoed programs.

“What the governor has called ‘wasteful spending’ and ‘pork’ are neither of those,” Lang said.