June 15--As a July 1 deadline for a state budget agreement nears, members of a Pentecostal church on Chicago's Northwest Side are launching a petition drive against cuts that would affect the poor.
Before a Sunday service at Resurrected Life Church International in the Hermosa neighborhood, Lead Pastor Ray Berryhill cited cuts to children and family services, health care and education that Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner proposed in February to bridge a $6 billion budget shortfall, as well as the $26 million in grant funds that the governor suspended in April.
The cuts, he said, affect those with disabilities, the homeless, teens and immigrants.
"I'm trying to extend an olive branch and say, 'Governor, I need you to look with compassion on people you serve,' " Berryhill said. "The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of poor people or working people."
Berryhill is asking church members to take a petition to co-workers, family, friends and neighbors. He hopes other churches will sign the petition and join his church in taking it to the governor's office June 23.
"I want to see the pastors who supported him in the election," Berryhill said. "I want them to say something about this."
Church member Nicole Fuquay, who stays home to take care of 11-year-old twins with cerebral palsy, said he is worried about the $733 per month she receives for each of her twins. If some of that money is cut, Fuquay fears she will have to find a job instead of care for them full time.
"There are other areas he can cut from," said Fuquay, 34, of Humboldt Park.
Ruby Taylor, 56, a member of the church and director of Taproots, a social service agency that provides services to at-risk families, is worried that a summer program her organization runs could be affected.
Kimberly Bates, 43, also a member of the church, said her daughter, who works with disadvantaged youth in Brookfield, is not sure if she will receive a paycheck next month.
"I think it's more urgent now because ... as of July 1, if there is no budget in place, there are no funds," Bates said.
Overall, the working poor are uneducated on how the cuts may affect them, Bates said. She is hoping that the petition drive at the church will encourage them to educated themselves and speak out.
"I don't think we truly understood the impact of what he was going to do," Bates said. "I knew it wouldn't be great for us as a people. I didn't think it would be this bad."
mmrodriguez@tribpub.com
