Rafael Rivadeneira for DuPage County Board District 2

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Rafael News

Slashing Spending and Shrinking the Budget Day 3

posted: October 28, 2009 • Categories: Slashing Spending • Comments: 0

Perhaps the reason for today’s cuts are because Illinois politicians have for years had a lapse of judgment. The state currently awards hundreds of millions of grant money to private and nonprofit institutions for various reasons. The reason I include these on our journey towards fiscal responsibility is not because I don’t value the organizations receiving the grant money, but because our state is broke. Just as charitable giving is down in the many families struggling financially right now, as the state continually runs in the red, we should consider freezing  grants  that are not necessary until we have the luxury to do so.

Wednesday’s Cuts:

#7 Chicagoland Memory Bridge Initiative = $750,000

• This program could be paired with my wasteful education programs. This currently teaches juniors and seniors in high school about Alzheimer’s disease.
• Along with this initiative, the state gives away $350,000 each year for Alzheimer’s disease research to various institutions.

#8 Juvenile Diabetes Research Grant = $2,500,000

• This particular grant went to the University of Chicago Transplant Section for Juvenile Diabetes research. The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation recently awarded a $7.5 million, 5-year grant to the University of Chicago for the same exact research. Our state cannot afford to fund research that nonprofits and private corporations already fund heavily.

#9 Prostate Cancer Research Grants = $200,000

• While this line-item isn’t very descriptive, these grants are going into a research field that gets an overwhelming majority of its funding from private sources. Once again, with a state running in the red, we should consider freezing grants that are not crucial in the field.

#10 Anti-Smoking Programs = $10,000,000

• If the 2^nd highest cigarette tax in the country (Chicago) wasn’t enough to make you quit your habit, the state currently spends $10 million through a collection of anti-smoking programs.

The Wednesday total comes to $13,450,000. Combine that with our cuts from Monday and Tuesday, I’ve identified $42,287,897 in wasteful spending. Thursday and Friday I will uncover some programs that may make you question why we’ve put up with these politicians for so many years and why it’s time to elect those of us who want to save you those hard-earned dollars and cut our budget.