Home aide workers, elderly protest Rauner’s proposed budget cuts

Beatrice Lumpkin, 96, was among 50 demonstrators who helped deliver “senior survival kits” to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s aides at the Thompson Center on Wednesday to protest his proposed cuts to elderly services. The box filled with kits held a day’s amount of medicine, first aid, and a note reading “don’t shortchange our seniors.”

Those $400 million in cuts include having the Illinois Department on Aging raise the requirements to qualify for a program that provides them with at-home care and can help them avoid going to nursing homes. The rally was led by SEIU and the Illinois Alliance for Retired Americans.

“The governor knows we’re here and he knows we’re relatively few compared to those who are concerned,” said Lumpkin, who is on Medicare and receives a state pension. She added: “A lot of the people most affected are not even physically able to come here.”

Those who work daily with the elderly and retired also said it would affect them significantly.

“If the cuts are to happen, it would devastate our families financially,” Yvette Anderson, an in-home care provider, said. “Only thing we’re asking the governor to do is to be humane.”

Recent retiree Brian Matthews offered another solution to reducing the state’s debt while not cutting elderly services and jobs in that sector. “I would even agree to a tax increase with people paying their fair share,” he said.

More than 39,000 seniors will be affected by these cuts, according to the Illinois office of the AARP.

After the rally, the group met inside the Thompson Center with two of Rauner’s representatives and shared their stories and concerns.

The aides did not stick around to answer questions when demonstrators asked how they felt about the situation. The reps said they would deliver the message back to the governor, but did not specify when.

Rauner has said he will implement his proposed cuts on July 1 and has blamed Democratic lawmakers for passing a “phony budget” that does not address the state’s budget deficit.