State Stix                                                                                 

Looking to Springfield for help

The state would spend just over $33 billion in fiscal year 1996 under the spending plan unveiled by Gov. Jim Edgar.

About half that amount, $16.2 billion, would come from the state's general fund, the all-purpose account that pays for everything from paper clips to prison guards. As the charts on this page demonstrate, the demands on state resources from growing social problems may soon make prison guards and other guardians of social welfare as plentiful as paper clips.

There will be more prison guards — 416 if Edgar has his way. And more beds, too — 5,266 over the next three years under the governor's budget to go with 4,146 the administration has added between 1991 and the end of the current fiscal year. And those new beds will be needed, according to projections contained in the governor's budget book, the source of statistics and charts on this page. The adult prison population is expected to grow by 8.7 percent in fiscal 1996 while the number of juveniles incarcerated is expected to jump 10.9 percent. "Consequently," notes the budget document, "the increased bed capacity will barely keep pace with new inmate growth."

But the demand for prison space is not the only emerging need facing the state, nor even the most costly one. Although public aid caseloads for persons receiving income support — the Aid to Families with Dependent Children — appear to have leveled off in recent years, the number of recipients of the Medicaid program continues to grow. While the number of AFDC recipients in 1996 is actually expected to decline compared with 1992, the number receiving Medicaid is projected to rise 183,000 in 1996, compared to four years earlier. For every dollar budgeted for income support of indigent people next year, five dollars is budgeted for medical assistance.

Among the largest budget increases proposed by Edgar is the $85 million in new spending budgeted for the Department of Children and Family Services, bringing its general fund appropriation to $900 million and its overall budget to $1.2 billion in 1996. About two-thirds of that budget goes to support family reunification and substitute care programs for children. The number of children in foster care is expected to continue its dramatic climb during 1996. The budget describes the growth of placements in relatives' home as "phenomenal" — 119 percent, or 12,288 children between July 1991 and July 1994.

Another social service with vast growth is treatment of persons afflicted with alcohol or drug abuse. The budget office projects that 53,500 clients will be admitted to outpatient treatment for alcohol abuse in 1996, and another 35,700 for drug abuse — a 77 percent increase in alcohol abuse clients since 1992, and a 40 percent increase in drug abuse clients during that span. Residential treatment centers for drug abusers also have experienced substantial growth in clients.