Officials from AIDS Foundation of Chicago are calling attention to state budget issues they say could put Illinoisans with HIV/AIDS in peril.
State legislators are this month considering making permanent the 2011 tax hike from 3.75% to 5%, which would potentially decrease the state's revenue by approximately $1.5 billion dollars next year, according to an AFC statement. That means massive budget cuts would be necessary; those would include about $4 million dollars in cuts for HIV/AIDS services.
"Cutting $4 million from Illinois' HIV/AIDS services budget means that hundreds of people will lose access to the medications that keeps them alive," said John Peller, interim president and CEO of AFC. "Legislators need to know that without extending the current tax rates, we will most certainly see more people with HIV in the hospital as well as higher rates of new HIV cases in the community."
Medication support, testing services, prevention services, linked care programs and youth outreach initiatives would be among those efforts that would feel the impact from the cuts.
"We need supporters of equal access to health care to reach out to their Illinois state representatives and tell them that cutting services to people living with HIV/AIDS is unjust and unnecessary," said Peller.
If an extensioncurrently favored by Gov. Pat Quinnis not passed, the lower tax rate would take effect January 1, 2015. House Speaker Michael Madigan said May 21 that support for keeping the higher rates is at the moment minimal, Chicago Sun-Times reported.