Quigley: Sequestration is 'Budgeting With Meat Cleaver' on North Side

Federal across-the-board budget cuts totaling $85 billion are likely to kick in Friday, but the White House now concedes the impact will not be as immediately dramatic as recent posturing indicated.

In fact, the New York Times reported Wednesday that President Barack Obama is counting on “a constant drip-drip-drip of bad news” slowly coming out in congressional districts in the weeks ahead to erode the steadfast opposition of Republican lawmakers to raising taxes.

The cuts, called sequestration, are mandated by a 2011 deficit reduction law, according to the Chicago Tribune. They cover both defense—13 percent—and non-defense—9 percent—spending, but do not include such things as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the interest the government pays on its debt.

State funding for police, as well as crime prevention and prosecution is high on the list of officials' concerns, they've said. Illinois faces the lose about $587,000 in Justice Assistance Grants, which support police, prosecutions and courts, crime prevention and education, community corrections, drug treatment and enforcement, and more.

But—possibly of the utmost interest—what does this mean for the North Side?

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North Side AIDS, Health Help, Could Face 'The Axe'

Ultimately, the effects of sequestration—job cuts, smaller paychecks, losses or reductions in government services—will take a toll on Americans. That includes North Side residents, U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago), said.

"Over the last week, I've met with dozens of groups for whom the sequester is not some abstract budgeting term," he said while speaking at the U.S. House of Representatives. "For these organizations and people back in my district, sequestration will have real, damaging effects."

He goes on to cite the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, an organization that collaborates with community organizations throughout the North Side to develop and improve HIV and AIDs services. The foundation estimates that about 125 AIDS-afflicted families would lose their housing under sequestration, Quigley said.

Representatives from the Howard Brown Health Center echoed such concerns. Located just north of Lake View's Irving Park Road border, it's the Midwest’s largest LGBT community health center. 

The cut in funding for the Ryan White Care Act, the federal law which provides funding for HIV treatment and prevention, would translate into a potential waiting list for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

“The ADAP program is truly a life-saving program, and current federal funding does fully meet current demand,” Karma Israelsen, the hospital's interim president and CEO, said in a written statement. " … We count on federal funding to grow and expand care and programming to meet the needs of those we serve."

The White House released health-related statistics earlier this week saying cuts would lead to 5,239 fewer Illinois children receiving vaccines such as measles, mumps and rubella. The state could lose around $968,000, overall, to help upgrade its ability to respond to public health threats, the same statistics suggest.

The Hungry Could Get Hungrier

Although funding for Lakeview Pantry wouldn't be directly cut, its money attained through federal sources including the Greater Chicago Food Depository would be.

The pantry serves Lincoln Park and Lake View and is one of the oldest such pantries in Chicago, according to its website.

"There is very little federal government funding that Lakeview Pantry applies for," said Sreya Sarkar, the pantry's director of education and advocacy. " … But we know some of our clients use programs like SNAP (Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program), TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and Medicaid. Fortunately, these programs are cut exempt."

Other initiatives providing nutrition help and education, like WIC—The "Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children"—are on the chopping block, she said.

"llinois would also lose about $764,000 in funds that provide meals for seniors," Sarkar noted Wednesday. She further discussed diminished job-search and child care programs.

"… I do think that the nation is facing a difficult situation with the debt ceiling problem so sequestration cuts are inevitable," Sarkar said. "There is no point blaming anyone. We have a situation in hand and that needs real solution."

Learning Could be Hampered

Educational programs are also on the chopping block. 

Headstart, for example, could see a 10 percent cut. The program offers preschool to low-income children who are between 3 and 5 years old.

Albany Park Community Center's Headstart program serves more than 300 kids in Lincoln Square and Uptown.

“We don’t really know what’s going to happen,” said Dina Evans, the senior director of the center's Children and Youth Programs.

Evans said the City of Chicago funds Headstart, and has been kept in the dark about the details.

“No one is talking about it and the city has said they don’t know anything yet,” she said.

The one thing she has heard is that slashes to programs won’t happen right away. Even with a March 1 deadline, the government will outline a process for how money is allocated.

“I think it’s going to be really hard,” Evans said. “We don’t want to get rid of any kids.”

On the post-secondary education level, thousands of schools face peril.

DePaul University may be private—the largest Catholic university in the country, to be exact—but that doesn't mean it's immune to federal changes.

It stands to lose almost $95,000 in opportunity grants and more than $200,000 in federal work study money, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

Preparing for Cuts Will be Tricky

At the national level, both Democrats and Republicans are posturing about the effects sequestration will bring, and it is difficult to assess how quickly any cuts will roll out.

That also makes it challenging to prepare at the local level—particularly since the stances by both Democrats and Republicans are intended to force a compromise that is favorable to their respective agendas.

Quigley has led a push for a "3B Budget Plan" that he says is bipartisan, achieves big deficit reductions and balances spending cuts with tax reform.  

"The sequester will undermine our growing, but still fragile economy," he said. " … We just went through this not more than two months ago, as we remember, with the fiscal cliff. Sadly, we seem no wiser from that experience. We continue to bicker, rather than plan. We posture rather than negotiate. We delay rather than decide." 

He continued to note that political leaders are moving from one crisis to the next, threatening the economy and "undermining the public's tenuous faith in its political institutions."

"We lack a comprehensive approach to just about every challenge we face," Quigley said. "… It is managing by paralysis. It's budgeting with a meat cleaver. It's absurd and it has to end."

Patch editors Ted Schnell and Sarah Flagg and Andy Ambrosius contributed to this report.

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