From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Nope - the only governor I referred to was John Engler. I'm happy to say
you are confused 

"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
news:442773a6$1{at}w3....
>I left Illinois in 1979, so I'm not really all familiar with Illinois'
> governor Thompson.  I thought Rich had referred to governor Tommy Thompson
> from Wisconsin.  Maybe I was confused.
>
> Why didn't big Jim run for president?
>
> Illinois appeared to be a lot better state under Thompson than under the
> subsequent governors of both parties from what I gleaned from the national
> press.
>
> Gary
>
> "Bill Lucy"  wrote in message
> news:MPG.1e90f8c88dee38bd989704{at}news.barkto.com...
>> In article , email{at}from_Gary_Britt.org says...
>> > You aren't up on your history.  Thompson wasn't a governor in the 70's
> when
>> > the matters to which I referred began and came to fruition.
>>
>> Uh, Gary, yes he was. James R. Thompson was Governor of Illinois from
>> 1977 to 1991. And I was actually working with people in the 80s who were
>> in the local mental health community in the early to mid 80s, so I do
>> know whereof I speak. Lawsuits weren't a big issue at this time. What
>> was an issue was funding for community mental health centers. Money that
>> had originally been allocated because of the Community Mental Health Act
>> in the 60s was reallocated to block grants during the Reagan
>> administration. The Thompson administration had already committed to
>> closing 4 large state mental hospitals (Dixon, Manteno, East Moline, and
>> I can't recall the other one). Most of these closed in the 1981-1982
>> timeframe.
>>
>> Again, it had *nothing* to do with any lawsuits. At the time, we were
>> unhappy with the Governor's decision regarding the closures. But the
>> real issue was (and continues to be) funding of locally based mental
>> health centers.
>>
>> So I guess I can blame the Reagan administration -- again.
>>
>>
>
>

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5