Busting out human services providers in the not-for-profit sector? If so, you read it here first --

Until just lately I would have said it's absolutely incredible -- in the original root meaning of the word -- but knowledgeable observers of Illinois government are beginning to suspect an orchestrated effort to privatize the human services typically provided by 501c3 not-for-profits. That, according to this new line of thinking, is one reason why they are suffering so much under Gov. Rauner's failure to negotiate a budget with the legislative leadership.

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief. But I never would have seen busting out inner-city neighborhood schools and replacing them with charters as an investment opportunity, either ...

And that is how Rauner made his fortune in the private sector.

As a bust-out artist.

So people are beginning to connect some of the dots.

I'm hearing it with higher ed, too, as Republicans in the state Legislature begin to speculate that downstate regionals like Eastern Illinois University or Western might want to think about consolidating. But let's stick with the 501c3's for now.

Here's the windup ...

Posted yesterday, Feb. 1, to Capitol Fax was an Associated Press story reporting that Ashley’s Quality Care in Chicago, which provides in-home care workers to keep seniors out of nursing homes, "has not met its payroll for 14 weeks, forcing the departure of 40 percent of its previous 1,000 employees; clientele has dipped by one-third, to 800, slicing revenue." It is owed $2 million due to Rauner's budget impasse.

To which a commenter suggested the damage is intentionally inflicted, quoting Bernie Schoenberg's column Oct. 24 in the State Journal-Register (which apparently insists on those annoying first references in all-caps):

Rauner was among panelists at a 2012 tax policy conference in Chicago, sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute. Moderator MARGARET SPELLINGS, former U.S. secretary of education, asked him how people could build a “political constituency for change.” […]

“We will crush our economy if we try to spend money on both high-cost, inefficient, bureaucratic, heavily unionized government and a social safety net to help the disadvantaged,” Rauner said.

“We can’t afford both,” he said, and “wealth creators,” like JIMMY JOHN LIAUTAUD, founder of Jimmy John’s sandwich shops and another panelist, would be forced to leave the state.

“I think we can drive a wedge issue in the Democratic Party on that topic and bring the folks who say, ‘You know what, for our tax dollars, I’d rather help the disadvantaged, the handicapped, the elderly, the children in poverty,’ ” Rauner said, instead of directing tax dollars to the Service Employees International Union or “AF-Scammy,” an apparent reference to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, known as AFSCME for short.

So that explains the partisan politics at play here. But there are more dots to connect.

Another commenter quoted Senate GOP Leader Christine Radogno as saying there "needed to be a shakeout" in human services, that "[s]ome of these very small, very weak agencies, where their clients were being taken over by larger agencies. … I think not all of that was a horrible thing" (also quoted in a Jan. 30 article by Bernie Schoenberg (but this time a news story without the annoying all-caps).

Also in Schoenberg's article, Radogno, R-Lemont, said a shakeout might not be a bad thing in higher ed, too. She spoke with editorial board of The State Journal-Register a day before Rauner’s State of the State address.

Lack of funding for higher education creates “uncertainty if you’re a student,” she said. But, she added, “some of these universities have cut some of their administrative costs –- sort of squeeze-the- beast theory.”

She said “global questions” about higher ed could now be asked.

“Should we have six, eight schools of education, everybody having a program and everything? I don’t know,” Radogno said. She noted a couple of two-year colleges went to four years, including what is now the University of Illinois Springfield.

“Maybe we ought to have more going from four to two,” she said.

And the pitch ...

The AP story was included in a CapFax post headlined "Another hostage clings to life" -- an update quoted a reader, who said "this is a feature, not a bug," and elaborated:

Rich, here are a couple things to think about. One is this article from the Quad Cities, LSSI’s adult daycare is being taken over by a multi-state company backed by a wall street firm. This happened really quickly.

http://kwqc.com/2016/01/27/new-company-plans-to-fill-void-left-by-closing-of-intouch/

Then there is the email all of us got from DHS last week. Add in Radogno’s comments after the SoS, and Bernie’s column on Sunday. Maybe I am paranoid, but we just might be seeing a major move by this administration to consolidate human services from locally controlled non-profits to multi-state, for-profit firms, and the Illinois-based groups that are large enough to survive some time without being paid. Just some food for thought.

Let's unpack that before we start thinking.

The KWQC-TV news report notes that an out-of-state private firm called Help at Home Inc. plans to take over Intouch, the adult day care service provided by Lutheran Social Services of Illinois in Moline until LSSI downsized last month as a result of the state budget impasse.

And the DHS memo, a copy of which was obtained by CapFax, discusses "strategic mergers among service providers that were struggling financially and/or did not have the back office expertise to support their business" and recommends Jim Lewis of Chicago Community Trust, "who some of you may know has been working with their resources to support non-profits interested in these strategic merger opportunities."

Nothing there that's necessarily illegal or unethical, obviously. But enough to cause me a little cognitive dissonance.

Connecting the dots ...

Food for thought, indeed --

Today's exercise in connecting the dots came in an item headlined "Home-care agency to slash worker pay to stay alive" -- a report in the Trib that Family Home Services, a home-care agency that assists hundreds of seniors in the Chicago area, plans on "cutting agency workers’ pay by half ... because of the ongoing Springfield stalemate," according to the SEIU.

Which prompted the following comment:

- wordslinger - Tuesday, Feb 2, 16 @ 9:49 am:

Is the governor’s office going to give us the skinny on the “merger” strategy for social service agencies that was revealed here yesterday in that DHS email?

Sounds like a big deal, something you should share with the public.

If you’re going to willfully push social service agencies into financial distress, then urge those in financial distress to contact a specific group to discuss mergers, it would be nice for the game plan to be transparent.

Otherwise, some could get the impression that it’s just a bust-out; running going concerns into the ground so that some favored few can swoop in, pick at the remains and pick up future state contracts.

I still can't quite get my head around the idea of a Wall Street bust-out artist seeking profits in the 501c3 sector. It just doesn't make sense financially. But nothing else that guys like Rauner do makes financial sense, either. And the people who comment on Capitol Fax aren't wingnuts. If they think the dots may be connected, I'm going to start looking for the connections.