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It turns out the city’s service cutbacks aren’t going to be limited to slowdowns in pothole repair or snow removal. As the Trib reported this morning (and the Chi-Town Daily News reported last week), the health department is getting ready to close 5 of the city’s 12 mental health clinics at a time when people are losing their jobs and health insurance at staggering rates. City officials say their hands were forced by a drop in state funding; critics wonder why the city can devote resources to pursuing the 2016 Olympics–or, for that matter, another pro football team–when it can’t find a way to support basic community health programming.
YEAR
TOTAL BUDGET
MENTAL HEALTH BUDGET
EX-OFFENDERS SEEKING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
2005
$ 201,251,200.00
N/A
749
2006
$ 204,056,110.00
$ 13,458,524.00
1045
2007
$ 210,032,626.00
$ 14,876,601.00
1149
2008
$ 230,259,853.00
$ 14,757,404.00
981 (city estimate)
2009
$ 191,199,122.00
$ 14,620,486.00
As we’ve noted before, this appears to be the Daley administration’s strategy for dealing with all kinds of budget shortfalls.
