Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Gov. Pat Quinn announced his intentions Friday to cut 2,600 state jobs and to make most state employees take 12 unpaid days off each, as part of a plan to help balance the budget.

Quinn is spreading a limited supply of money among Illinois government agencies while warning that more is needed for preschool, college scholarships, health care and other services.

The Democratic governor says the budget leaves Illinois with about $1.4 billion in unmet needs. He says more revenue must be found.

Quinn and lawmakers agreed on a new state budget that left him with the job of cutting spending by at least $1 billion and deciding where to spend a pool of about $3.4 billion. Quinn earlier this year called for an income-tax increase that would have offset some -- but not all -- of the state's chronic deficits, but lawmakers rejected the idea.

"We're implemeting what some legislators screamed to the heavens for," Quinn said. "We've cut from here to Kingdom Come."

Quinn announced his latest budget plans Friday afternoon. They include the planned "headcount reduction" of 2,600 state workers, including 1,000 employees from the Department of Corrections, nearly 900 from the Department of Human Services and 300 employees from the Illinois State Police.

Quinn's chief of staff, Jerome Stermer, said the state's main labor union could renegotiate salary levels and agree to a pay freeze to make the job cuts less painful.

Stermer said the prison agency will close a "small facility" and release thousands of inmates early.

Meanwhile, the Quinn administration said it would seek to make many state employees -- union and non-union alike -- take 12 unpaid furlough days each. Stermer said the impact on union workers also is contingent on negotiations with labor leaders but stressed the savings must come from somewhere.

The largest union for government workers says Quinn's cuts will weaken key services. Henry Bayer, executive director of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees' Council 31, called on Quinn and lawmakers to return to Springfield and find ways to raise new revenue.

Emerging as relative budget cut winners: social service providers, abused kids, HIV-AIDS treatment and women's cancer programs and early childhood education. But there were big losers as well, including college students, facing $225 million in scholarship cuts.

Quinn expressed regret at those cuts, saying of students, "That's our future."

Quinn originally planned to duck the budget-cut announcement altogether, leaving the task to his chief of staff. Earlier Friday, he had to be goaded into attending by reporters, who asked why he shouldn't be there to explain his actions

"Well, I'll be happy to be there -- I was the one who was the person who put this difficult situation to rest," he said.

Quinn put much of the money he had left into grants for local services such as mental health and drug counseling. Programs for the elderly and for abused children also get funding.

When asked how they would manage the budget, members of the public acknowledged the politicians have some tough choices to make.

"It's a very difficult question and I'm glad I'm not in politics," one man said.

The governor's office has posted information about the budget here.

CBS 2's Derrick Blakley, Dana Kozlov and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Editor's Picks

• Real Or Fake?
• Celebs Who Lean To The Right
• Top 10 Smartest And Dumbest Dog Breeds
• World's Most Useless Facts