Rep. Woody Bowman (D-4, Evanston) suggests taxing the dead in order to help children. His is one of the more innovative responses to the dilemma of "generational equity."

The problem arises from demographics and demographically disparate programs. Illinois is aging. Today there are 1.8 million residents over age 60: By the year 2020, there will be nearly 3 million. That leaves those still working supporting children and more senior citizens. At the same time the elderly as a class are getting richer, and children are becoming poorer. That, economists say, is because programs for the elderly are indexed to inflation, but those for children are not. The shifts setup generational conflict, senior citizens and children competing for increasingly scarce public dollars.

Bowman's concept — he stresses that it is preliminary and has not yet risen to the stature of a proposal — somewhat avoids direct confrontation. He reasons that if social programs are making the elderly richer, the ultimate beneficiaries are their heirs. He predicts that a new inheritance tax could generate $100 million annually, money that could be put in a fund to serve children.

Janet S. Otwell, director of the Department on Aging, saw the competition coming and called a series of 10 seminars to begin discussing Illinois' response. A panel at Sangamon State University drew state officials, including Budget Director Robert L. Mandeville who suggested "people helping people" as a solution. Others thought the elderly could work in schools or serve as foster grandparents. The ideas were more theoretical than practical. That suited Otwell, who wanted to begin talk, not arrive at specifics.

The responses that Otwell got may have been abstract, but the problem is real and looming for young adults. They foot the bill for children and senior citizens. They pay for schools and programs like Aid to Families with Dependent Children for the young, and Social Security and Medicare for the elderly. And they read about the day when Social Security will be bankrupt. and wonder if they will ever benefit. That worry has sparked calls of payment freezes and other limitations to older persons benefits.

Under present policy "what one group gets another has to lose," says Sangamon State University Professor LeRoy Wehrle "We create a nobody wins situation and the more the elderly get, the more the young are going to lose." Currently the elderly hold the advantage. Wehrle explains: "The elderly will continue to hold high ground politically, and other groups will not be able to mobilize or really become an articulate interest group because they're too diffuse." Otwell admits the state has done a lot for the elderly. But she wants that activity to continue. The elderly do not want conflict, Otwell says "[They] don't want an even trade-off. They don't want equity. What they want is the needs met." And right now the elderly have three things going for them, according to Otwell: "We have growing numbers, we have growing realization of their needs, and we have a growing interest in doing something."

The young people cannot match those advantages. "Seniors vote and they've had the experience of their lifetime. Children don't vote and have no experience, and children don't organize. It takes adults to organize for children," says Rep. Lee Preston (D-3, Chicago). He proposes a department of child advocacy to do for children what the Department on Aging does for the elderly. "We have not spent enough time or enough assets to prevent problems," Preston says.

Illinois provides services to the old and the young, but current programs cannot meet all needs. Poverty exists among both groups. In 1980, 12 percent of those aged 60 and above and 15 percent of those 19 and under lived below the poverty level.

To help everybody win, Otwell emphasizes three important areas for both populations — prevention programs, family settings and housing. State-run prevention programs currently serve both the old and the young. Community nutrition programs for senior citizens can help prevent crises that require hospitalization. For young people, education is in one sense a poverty prevention effort. Illinois already spends millions on schools, but Wehrle says more must be done. "We can take the education of our young people seriously in Chicago," he says, rather than making a political game out of it.

Illinois should reach out to more people on a family basis instead of catering to the needs of one age group over another, Otwell says. Creating that family atmosphere gives the elderly a sense of being worthwhile and allows them to remain active in the community. She says a private group, the Illinois Association of Family Service Agencies' newly created task force on family policy, can help keep that focus. The task force will review policies that hurt rather than support families. One is a state prohibition against paying family members to care for older relatives. Another is the limitation of Aid to Families with Dependent Children payments to single-parent families, a restriction that sometimes forces a father to leave home.

Otwell also proposes community housing for the elderly, especially those with low incomes. When a person needs more care than he can receive at home, an expensive nursing home does not have to be the answer. Community housing that includes some domestic help allows the elderly to remain in a supportive, familiar setting. And social activities offered in that type of setting also keep the elderly involved.

Public administrator Otwell says the conflict requires more money and a bigger pie: "We're going to have to pay, those of us who can afford it, to assist those who cannot and [recognize] that we pay a high price if we don't do that." Economist Wehrle agrees that money is important but says attitudes make the difference. We need to create a modern New Salem, he believes, where people work together feel valuable. "The sense of being needed and feeling a meaningful role in life and a relationship — that's what counts," he says.

No easy answers exist to the new generation gap. The search for solutions has begun. But people need to realize, Otwell believes, "that with more people and more of them growing older and older we are going to have to work together to find ways to meet those needs to work together to find ways to meet those needs as well as to continue to educate our children"