Late last month, lawmakers left Springfield after passing a budget framework that failed to address the deficit and handed off most of the cutting decisions to Gov. Pat Quinn. A new and detailed report from the organization Voices for Illinois Children (VFIC) outlines just how out-of-whack next year's budget truly is.

The paper is worth reading in full (PDF), but here are the abridged bullet points outlining how the state's major departments are affected by the General Assembly's appropriations bill:

Education: General State Aid received an identical appropriation from FY 2010, which means the state's very low per-pupil foundation level will at least hold steady. The remainder of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) budget didn't survive intact. Mandated categoricals (most of which fund special ed programs) was sliced by $310 million and aggregate funding for other ISBE expenditures -- including early education -- dropped $280 million. Meanwhile, funding for the Illinois Community College Board was also cut $27 million, equaling 7.5 percent of the body's total budget.

Department of Health and Family Services: Medical assistance programs funded through DHFS -- hospital and long-term care services, prescription drugs, community health centers, managed care -- won't face significant cuts next year. The appropriations bill does not, however, appropriate any money to cover the state's contribution to its employee group insurance fund. Last year, Gov. Pat Quinn used $1 billion from his $3.5 billion lump-sum appropriation to make the payment. He'll likely do so again this year.

Department of Human Services: This is where things get ugly. The General Assembly's appropriation shorts DHS by $1.5 billion, the largest deficit of any agency in the state. While federal funding protects some of these line-items -- like developmental disability programs and family case management -- other services could be in great jeopardy. "Funding for nearly all DHS programs is uncertain in the Governor’s allocation of 'discretionary' appropriations," the VFIC report concludes. That includes community mental health and youth services, which have already experienced huge spending reductions over the past three years.

Department of Children and Family Services: Because of a federal consent decree mandating that Illinois maintain an adequate level of child protection and foster care services, it's likely that Gov. Quinn will use his spending powers to restore a $286 million cut to the DCFS budget.

Department of Aging: Like DCFS, it would be wise for Quinn to send some of his open appropriations to the Department of Aging, which is slated to be funded at only 48 percent of its FY 2010 level. More than 90 percent of the DoA's general revenue budget is devoted to the vital Community Care Program, which also operates under a consent decree.

These legislative decisions will have real consequences on people across the state. Not surprisingly, demand for services in the Department of Human Services, for example, are rising steadily. As Amy Merrick reported for the Wall Street Journal last week, Illinois' welfare caseload is rising for the first time in more than five years.

Waiting lists for substance abuse and mental illness treatment programs are also growing, meaning the cost to operate at the status quo will likely ramp up by about $250 million. At the same time, funding for those programs are being necessarily trimmed. Virtually all non-Medicaid services will be scaled back, such as a $91 million cut to Illinois' already-decrepit mental health system.

The governor's office will undoubtedly fill some of these holes using the $3.46 billion lump sum the General Assembly dumped on his desk before they left in May. But there's just not enough revenue to go around. Indeed, the Emergency Budget Act (SB 3660) that the legislature paired with its spending plan allows the governor's office to withhold about $2 billion in appropriations from virtually any program it wants to.

And this budget in no shape or form closes the cumulative deficit Illinois has accrued over the past three years. There's no money to pay off an estimated $6 billion backlog of bills, which VFIC aptly describes as "de facto budget cuts" and which affect providers from every single department listed above.

While the pension "reform" bill that passed in March lowers this year's contribution by roughly $1 billion, the state still needs to pay $3.52 billion into the system that they don't currently have. Both VFIC and the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability estimate (PDF) that the outstanding deficit is still roughly $10 to $11 billion dollars entering 2012. That could get worse if tax receipts continue to decline. And it means that most new dollars the state raises will go straight to old obligations.

Passing a serious and responsible state budget is the most important thing lawmakers in Springfield do.  So far this year, it's safe to say that they failed miserably.  And residents from every corner of the state will pay for their inaction.