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Illinois Veteran’s Home Advisory Board Minutes |
The meeting was called to order by Jerry Vogler, Committee Chairman, at 10:00 a.m. Present at the meeting were: A review of the meetings at the various Illinois Veterans Nursing Homes was discussed with the following dates identified: LaSalle – Meeting was held at LaSalle on September 15, 2007 Quincy – Meeting will be held at Quincy on October 6, 2007 10:00 a.m. at Lippincott Hall Manteno – Meeting will be held at Manteno on October 13, 2007 Anna – Meeting will be held on October 6, 2007 The main topic of discussions at this meeting of the Illinois American Legion Veteran’s Home Advisory Committee was the recent Amendatory Veto of approximately $2.6 million that the Illinois Governor vetoes from the Budget sent to him by the State Legislature. This $2.6 million was earmarked to provide staffing for the newly constructed section of the LaSalle Veteran’s Home which will be completed in January 2008. The newly constructed facility is supposed to provide space for 80 Veteran’s bed in the home. Without the $2.6 million the 80 beds can not be filled. The current waiting list for admission to the LaSalle Home is over two years, and these 80 beds would help reduce the waiting time for Veterans wishing to utilize the LaSalle Home. In addition, there are apparently 25 beds at the existing LaSalle Veteran’s Home which can not be used, because there is inadequate funding to pay for staffing the beds. These beds have been staffed in the past, and the Central Management System of the State of Illinois is very tardy in getting approvals to replace the staff members who would support those 25 beds. The Governor’ Amendatory Veto pen also eliminated approximately $500,000 which was earmarked to provide the continuing funding for the 25 beds which are currently and unnecessarily sitting vacant at LaSalle.
Illinois Speaker of the House has called for a veto session of the State Legislature which hopefully would include the restoral of the $2.6 million and the $500,000 to the Veteran’s Home budget. However, a continuing concern for Veterans is that the Senate President Emil Jones has indicated that he will not allow a veto override vote to be called in the Illinois Senate, which effectively will legislatively kill any attempt in the Illinois House, to override the Governor’s Amendatory Veto. The meeting was adjourned at 11:30 a.m. Jerry A. Vogler, Sr. |