Dec. 22, 2017
The (Champaign) News-Gazette
Where have all the people gone?
The numbers don’t lie: Illinois is shrinking while most of the country is growing.
Imagine if everyone in Danville, plus nearly everyone in Tilton, packed up their belongings, loaded their cars and trucks left the state.
That’s how many fewer people reside in Illinois from July 1, 2016, to July 1, 2017, according to figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week. In fact, Illinois had the largest population loss of any state.
In a year’s time, many people die - about 33,000 in 2016-17. But births more than offset that; Illinois gained nearly 154,000 new little citizens in that same time frame. Plus, the Land of Lincoln welcomed more new residents internationally than it lost - a net increase of 33,700.
The reason Illinois’ population is falling - while most states’, including all neighboring ones, are increasing: More people are leaving than arriving. The state’s “net domestic migration” was a minus-114,779. That’s just in a year’s time.
In the seven years since the last census in 2010, Illinois has seen a net loss to other states of nearly 643,000 people. That’s roughly the combined populations of Champaign, McLean, Macon, Vermilion, Iroquois, Douglas, Piatt and Ford counties.
Why is Illinois losing people while other states are gaining?
Is it the weather? The beginning of winter does cause some Northerners to daydream about a Florida beach or an Arizona golf course.
But every Midwestern state, where winter is just as frosty, has gained population since 2010 - except Illinois.
Maybe it’s property taxes, since Illinois ranks No. 2 for the highest real estate taxes.
Maybe it’s higher income taxes. The personal rate has fluctuated from 5 percent to 3.75 percent and now 4.95 percent.
Maybe it’s the business climate. Illinois’ does have higher workers’ compensation insurance rates than surrounding states.
Maybe it’s the state’s ever-rising public pension debt. Earlier this month, Fitch Ratings calculated that Illinois is carrying an unfunded liability of $151.5 billion - the highest in the nation, dwarfing No. 2 New Jersey with $91.8 billion.
Maybe it’s the state’s dysfunctional political climate. The two-year impasse between Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratically controlled state Legislature over how to fund education and other essential services damaged the state’s reputation nationally.
Maybe it’s all that and more.
According to Internal Revenue Service data, Illinois’ young adults - the so-called millennials - are the ones likely to move to other states.
And with them goes more than just census numbers. Illinois loses its future. These are the most recent high school and college graduates. They are the ones who get married and start families. They are the ones developing skills and experience - vital human capital for any growing economy.
Among these dreary numbers are a few bright dots: Champaign-Urbana, Bloomington-Normal and Edwardsville. Each of these communities is home to a public university - with rising enrollment. Not surprisingly, DeKalb, Charleston, Macomb and Carbondale - where public university enrollments have been declining - are also experiencing population losses.
What’s the takeaway? An educated population attracts businesses and jobs - which in turn attract more people.
Illinois has serious systemic problems: taxes, deficit spending, high costs to do business and more.
Some day, maybe the state’s leaders will stop posturing and start working on solutions. If that day comes, they should note how education has proven to be a winning ingredient.
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Dec. 19, 2017
Chicago Tribune
The toughest job in state government
Nearly six months into the job overseeing the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Beverly “B.J.” Walker doesn’t hesitate when asked about her most difficult moments. She describes two cases: a troubled teen whose life DCFS could not straighten out, and a toddler who died after being left alone for days.
These are the day-to-day realities of working in child protective services - stark and revolting stories of death and abuse, confounded by the strictures of bureaucracy and politics. Even for Walker, who arrived at DCFS with decades of government experience, simply getting information on specific cases has been challenging. Technology that might help staff anticipate problems isn’t available in a state besieged with legacy debt. That makes it difficult to “get a gauge on how deep the mud is,” she said during a recent Tribune Editorial Board visit.
That mud can seem epic. DCFS for decades has been stuck, thanks to turnover, scandal and tragedy. Can Walker turn it around?
She arrived at DCFS in June after the abrupt departure of George Sheldon, who was Gov. Bruce Rauner’s first pick to oversee the agency. Sheldon, a child welfare expert from Florida, resigned amid an ethics probe into questionable contracts that were awarded to friends and former business associates. He also left during ongoing investigations into several high-profile child deaths, including 17-month-old Semaj Crosby of Joliet Township, who was found dead under a couch. Eleven DCFS investigations into her home during a two-year period did not save her from tragedy.
Sadly, that has been the pattern at the agency for years. Nine directors or acting directors have left since 2011, largely due to in-house scandals or highly publicized cases of child abuse. Directors come, directors go. Will that cycle end with Walker, who says she plans to stay no matter who the governor is? Because quality and stability at the top are crucial to improving services for kids. We believe that.
In the 1990s, Walker worked with Gov. Jim Edgar’s administration to revamp social services throughout state government. She also worked under Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in the city’s department of children and families. She then left for Georgia, where she led its Human Services Department. She worked in the private sector before agreeing to take over DCFS.
Walker says she is not afraid to roll up her sleeves and collaborate with front-line staff. Recently, she negotiated an agreement with the agency’s largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, that allows her to fill vacancies faster to alleviate caseloads. Smaller caseloads could be key to improving outcomes for kids. So please note that she negotiated the change, and a few others, without a union standoff, without a litigious grievance process, without a public fight. How? She is willing to bang down the door of the status quo. And she asked nicely.
Perhaps more importantly, Walker is trying to change the protocol-driven culture within DCFS. Yes, there are hundreds of pages of state laws that regulate child welfare, each developed to address a problem. But blind adherence often is impractical when dealing with families in crisis. We agree. Caseworkers need to be freed up to do their jobs on the ground, not from a book of rules.
Walker personally intervened in a case involving a teenager with mental health problems whose family abandoned him. Even though her aides encouraged her to release him from DCFS care once he turned 18, she insisted she “was not going to give up on this boy.” Yet in spite of numerous interventions and “glimmers of hope” along the way, he eventually was arrested on charges of armed robbery. It was time to let go. That was one of her low points.
The other unfolded more recently. She awoke to a text on her phone. The mother of a 2-year-old toddler from Charleston allegedly left him alone for days in a playpen with two peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and a bottle of vitamin water with a small hole pricked in the top. He was discovered days later, dead from dehydration and starvation or a combination, according to the medical examiner.
The mother, Savannah Weiss, pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges.
It’s unclear how much contact DCFS had with the family. It is clear the child’s death left a scar on Walker. Even decades into the mud, she still is determined to wade through. She has demonstrated grit and accountability in her six months on the job. Give her time.
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Dec. 23, 2017
The (Springfield) State Journal-Register
Answers must be provided in Quincy Veterans Home outbreaks
It seems inconceivable that soldiers who fought wars overseas, who managed to return home despite the bullets and bombs constantly aimed their way, could be felled by a bacteria that can’t even be seen.
Yet that is what has happened at the Illinois Veterans Home in Quincy, where 13 residents have died of Legionnaires’ disease since 2015. The first outbreak in 2015 killed 12 and left dozens more ill. There have been subsequent outbreaks in each of the following two years: Five people were sickened in 2016, and this year, six fell ill and it contributed to one death.
Legionnaires’ disease, a severe form of pneumonia, is caused by bacteria that grows in warm water. It’s suspected those who became ill in Quincy have inhaled the bacteria through various water sources, like showers and sinks. The 132-year-old facility in some places has galvanized pipes that are more than a century old, which is likely where the Legionella bacteria lurks.
The outbreak has prompted 11 families to file negligence lawsuits against Illinois. And reporting by WBEZ in Chicago has raised serious questions about how the administration of Gov. Bruce Rauner responded to the outbreak and notified those affected and the public about what became a public health epidemic.
Two WBEZ reports have laid out the timeline: By Aug. 21, 2015, the state knew of two reported cases. The first death was recorded Aug. 22, 2015, and the Illinois Department of Health notified the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of five cases on Aug. 23, 2015. The first news release went out Aug. 27, 2015, publicly acknowledging the growing number of cases.
That six-day hesitation between being made aware of the cases and alerting the public was called “inexcusable” by Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, during an interview with WBEZ, as staff and family could have taken preventative steps if they were aware of the outbreak. Experts have told WBEZ it’s not uncommon to find the bacteria in large, older buildings, but have also noted repeated outbreaks are a sign the correct steps haven’t been taken to address it.
Those efforts have been considerable, and it’s notable that the outbreaks in 2016 and 2017 have affected fewer people than the one in 2015. Among the changes: The Rauner administration spent about $6.4 million to rehabilitate the water treatment plant after the 2015 outbreak. The state says patients showing symptoms of pneumonia are automatically tested and put on antibiotics before results even come back. Special $150 filters that screen out Legionella are attached to every shower head and sprayer (and replaced monthly).
The CDC has commended the steps Illinois has taken, but told WBEZ that the Quincy home’s plumbing system still poses a “potential risk” for the disease and “completely eradicating Legionella is very challenging.” State officials have said it could cost $500 million-plus to replace the miles of pipes at Quincy.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has called on the state to close the facility until the water is safe. State officials have said they contemplated moving the 400 residents who reside at the Quincy home, but thought it would be a hardship to move people who already have medical ailments.
An already emotional issue has become a political one too, as candidates for governor in the 2018 election have pounced on the opportunity to bash Rauner. It’s fair to demand accountability, but let’s not exploit the loss of 13 people into political campaign fodder.
The push for accountability needs to start with the General Assembly, and it’s good that its two veterans committees have scheduled a joint legislative hearing for Jan. 9 to address the outbreak. The questions about the state’s response to the outbreaks, as well as how transparently they were handled, must be answered. The appropriate people need to be held responsible if this outbreak could have been better contained and the public been made aware sooner.
The public must demand answers on behalf of our veterans and their families, who sacrifice so much for this country. They deserve to be treated better than they have been here.
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