About this time last year, we were feeling pretty optimistic that Illinois would patch up a gaping hole in the state's social safety net. We noted how the gradual lowering of the income ceiling for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program -- from 79 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) in 1973 to 27.6 percent in 2007  -- had disqualified a growing number of the state's poorest families from applying.  Indeed, even during the height of this recession, there was an 8.1 percent enrollment decline.  State lawmakers noticed this discouraging trend and went to work last year in attempting to reverse it.

It was State Rep. Will Burns (D-Chicago) who got the ball rolling, moving a bill (HB 2383) through the House that raised that eligibility level by 10 percent.  State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago) then saw the measure through the upper chamber. The measure was passed just in time for the Prairie State to dip into a pot of emergency TANF money included in the stimulus bill.  But it took until the fall veto session for state officials to work out some final kinks in the bill, which was ultimately signed by Gov. Pat Quinn in January. The delay pushed the effective date back to July 1, leaving a mere three-month window for the state to capture the stimulus money before the program sunsets on September 30. Under the federal matching policy, states receive $4 for every $1 they fund themselves, which means Illinois could lose out on $293 million (PDF), according to the Washington D.C. based policy group CLASP .

For a sense of how far behind the Prairie State has already fallen, consider this: As of January 7, Illinois had recouped a mere 0.5 percent of the available TANF Emergency Fund money, available through the stimulus project, according to a report released this week by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). By CLASP's count, that amounts to $1.4 million. Dan Lesser with the Sargent Shriver Center on Poverty Law chalks up Illinois' dismal outcomes -- which he notes are paltry compared with other states --  in large part to some less than "imaginative" thinking by state officials over the past year.

Encouragingly, Lesser tells us that the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) is finally beginning to make some progress in leveraging private donations and foundation money through transitional jobs programs, which would cover the state's matching requirement. "We've been slow to pick up on it," he tells us, "but I think the department, they understand the dimensions of this."  With the stimulus deadline approaching, the fruit of those discussions could come "too little too late," Lesser adds.

Both CPBB and the Shriver Center are calling on Congress to expand the TANF Emergency Fund deadline through September 2011. CPBB points out that time is of the essence:

The next few months will be crucial for state policymakers as they adopt budgets for the next fiscal year. States will need to know what federal help they can count on to help fund their TANF programs. Governors and state legislatures will adopt budgets between January and June, depending on the state. Some states, particularly those with short legislative sessions, require the adoption of budgets by March or April.

You can read the full CPBB report here.