By Kevin Lee 217-528-9604
SPRINGFIELD – The economic crisis undermining this generation could threaten the welfare of Illinois’ next generation.
A recent report by the nonprofit advocacy group Voices for Illinois Children says a growing percentage of the state’s youngsters will fall into poverty, even if the economy improves.
“It’s really a tough time to be a kid. It’s important that Illinois continues to invest in the well-being of children and families, especially those who are most vulnerable and especially during these toughest of times,” said Kathy Ryg, president of Voices for Illinois Children.
According to the report, Illinois had more than a half-million poor children in 2008, half of whom were in deep poverty, or below 50 percent of the poverty level.
The US Census Bureau defined the 2008 poverty level as an annual income of $22,000 for a two-parent, two-kid family, and $17,000 for a one-parent, two-kid family.
“We know child poverty is associated with lower levels of educational attainment, lower earnings in adulthood and lower quality of health,” Ryg said.
According to the report, one factor contributing to child poverty is the high unemployment that is affecting parents throughout the state.
The national recession has caused Illinois to lose 400,000 jobs since 2007.
In addition, the report cited the state’s overall loss of manufacturing jobs in the last decade as a contributing cause of high unemployment.
Former manufacturing centers such as Rockford, Danville, Decatur, Kankakee-Bradley, Peoria and parts of the city of Chicago struggled to deal with the recession.
The loss of well-paying jobs is impacting families, where parents must take on lower-paying and less permanent employment.
The report also said the situation is even more drastic for single-parent families, immigrant refugees and survivors of domestic abuse.
Ryg said in these difficult times, families must turn with increasing frequency to community service providers for assistance.
One group of service providers is Catholic Charities in Springfield, which runs a crisis assistance center and a food bank.
Carol Harms, community services coordinator for Catholic Charities, says she is seeing many families seeking assistance for the first time.
“Many mothers and fathers have stated a sense of embarrassment because they used to be donors and now they are actually having to receive the community services,” she said.
Ryg said service providers like Catholic Charities are being forced to slash their budgets because of deep cuts and delayed payments made by the state.
Illinois is hamstrung by a budget shortfall as deep as $13 billion. In addition, service providers and other state vendors have not received payments from the state for several months.
Ryg said one possible fiscal solution would be to raise the income tax to bring in more money, a contentious measure in the state legislature.
“Looking at the state fiscal crisis over a number of years, it’s a chronically weak revenue system,” she said. “There are proposals that clearly call for modernization of the tax system so that revenues would be collected that would be available for these important state services and programs.”
Ryg served as a House member during the last legislative session, when the House rejected Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed income tax increase.
Lawmakers will revisit the debate over a tax increase when they try to address the budget this spring.
