Posted inInvestigations

10 Years After State Budget Impasse, Human Services in Illinois Again Brace for ‘Tsunami’

Nonprofits hurt by impasse boosted budgets with federal funding — now endangered by Trump.

by Casey Toner, Hannah Meisel and Molly Parker August 28, 2025August 27, 2025

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10 Years After State Budget Impasse, Human Services in Illinois Again Brace for ‘Tsunami’

by Casey Toner, Hannah Meisel and Molly Parker, Illinois Answers Project
August 28, 2025

<h1>10 Years After State Budget Impasse, Human Services in Illinois Again Brace for ‘Tsunami’</h1>
<p class="byline">by Casey Toner, Hannah Meisel and Molly Parker, Illinois Answers Project <br />August 28, 2025</p>
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Cortnie Stewart, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a 1997 car crash, looks up at her mother Judy Stegle at their home in Jonesboro, Illinois. A nearby nonprofit provided respite services to aid in her full-time care before closing as result of the budget impasse. (Credit: Julia Rendleman/For Capitol News Illinois)

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Casey Toner

ctoner@illinoisanswers.org

Casey Toner, a Chicago native, has been an Illinois Answers reporter since 2016, taking the lead on numerous projects about criminal justice and politics. His series on police shootings in suburban Cook County resulted in a state law requiring procedural investigations of all police shootings in Illinois. Before he joined Illinois Answers, he wrote for the Daily Southtown and was a statewide reporter for Alabama Media Group, a consortium of Alabama newspapers. Outside of work, he enjoys watching soccer and writing music.

More by Casey Toner

Hannah Meisel

Hannah is a statehouse and Chicago reporter for Capitol News Illinois. She has been covering Illinois government and politics since 2014, and since then has worked for a variety of outlets from NPR affiliate stations to a startup newsletter. She’s a graduate of both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the U of I’s Springfield campus, where she received an M.A. through the Public Affairs Reporting program and got her start reporting in the Capitol.

More by Hannah Meisel

Molly Parker

Molly Parker is an investigative reporter for Capitol News Illinois.

More by Molly Parker