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player ready...Sports teams defraud ticket buyers with team changes
Why are sports team the only ones allowed to defraud tickets holders?
Take the Cubs. You buy tickets at their current ridiculous prices, expecting to see certain players and a competitive team. They say higher prices are justified because of salaries. Then they dump all the good players and their salaries. Do ticket prices go down?
It’s like paying to see Dolly Parton, then going to the concert and finding out Dolly isn’t there. But a local country singer is. That wouldn’t be allowed. Why can sports teams do that?
Allen K. Goodman, Elgin
System supporting the disabled close to breaking
Illinois took an important step last year when it approved increased funding for services for people with developmental disabilities. However, the system remains so underfunded that 14,000 people continue to wait for the services they need to live fulfilled lives. We must build on the progress made last year and continue improving care for individuals with disabilities and their families.
The Association for Individual Development (AID), supporting people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) in Kane and Kendall Counties since 1961, has closed two properties where people with IDD lived in the past year.
We have been unable to serve new clients for several years. We have not been able to return to Community Day Services, 91 people we had been serving pre-COVID. We have more than 50 people from the communities we serve on a waiting list for services and there are hundreds of people in Kane and Kendall counties on a statewide list awaiting IDD services. AID has more than 80 vacant positions in our IDD programs.
We can’t choose to close for a day or only keep our drive-thru open or cancel elective surgeries. Many people with IDD need 24-hour care and that need doesn’t go away during a pandemic or a workforce crisis. The IDD service system is closer than it has ever been to collapse in Illinois!
Services for people with disabilities ensure they and their families can contribute fully to local communities, through job training, assisted living support and lifestyle skills training. Without these services, people may lose some of the skills they fought hard to acquire.
We know what needs to be done to improve the system. The state of Illinois commissioned a nonprofit study to identify funding priorities that would ensure a stable, effective system of care for people with disabilities. Last year, the legislature and the governor provided some of that funding.
Now, I hope the legislature and the governor will again support these vital services by fully funding the recommendations in the Guidehouse Study.
Lore Baker
AID President & CEO