On March 21, 2012, the Illinois House passed House Bill 3810 with a 79 to 25 vote, a bill that would end the Illinois General Assembly Legislative Scholarship Program as of June 1, 2012. Tuition waivers granted by members on or before June 1, 2012 would still be valid for the full duration of the scholarship. Governor Quinn has repeatedly called for an end to the program. The legislative scholarship program entitles each member of the General Assembly to award the equivalent of two four-year…
UPDATE: On May 24, 2012 the Illinois General Assembly approved legislation to permit Cook County’s public health system to obtain federal funding for medical services for low-income adults under the Medicaid program. The plan must still be approved by the federal government. House Bill 5007 passed the House by a vote of 62 to 55 and the Senate by a vote of 35 to 22. The Cook County plan required an amendment to a State law enacted in January 2011 that placed a two-year moratorium on expansion…
Three weeks after Governor Pat Quinn delivered his FY2013 budget address, details on the recommended FY2013 capital budget are still not widely available. In most years, the Governor is required under the State Budget Act to deliver the operating and capital budgets for the coming year no later than the third Wednesday in February. This year the deadline was extended to the fourth Wednesday through a resolution passed by the General Assembly during its FY2012 fall veto session. On the day of…
In the last week, both houses of the Illinois General Assembly approved a General Funds revenue projection for FY2013 that is lower than the amounts included in the Governor’s recommended budget. In two parallel resolutions, House Resolution 707 and Senate Resolution 586, legislators agreed that the State’s FY2013 budget should be based on an expectation of $33.7 billion in General Funds revenues, which is $221 million less than the Governor’s projected total of $33.9 billion. The approved…
With new attention being paid to the cost of the State of Illinois’ Medicaid program, it seems logical to ask why the total annual costs of the program are not reflected in the State’s budget. The answer lies in an obscure statutory provision, found in Section 25 of the State Finance Act, that allows Medicaid costs to be paid from future years’ appropriations. In simple terms, this provision allows the State to hold down Medicaid appropriations below expected costs in order to help balance the…
The Civic Federation supports the continuation of property tax exemptions for non-profit hospitals that qualify as charitable organizations. However, the General Assembly must establish clear, definable standards of eligibility. This will enable hospitals to be certain about the minimum amount and kinds of care they are required to provide in order to receive a charitable designation from the State of Illinois and will provide the Illinois Department of Revenue with definitive,…
On February 22, 2012, Governor Pat Quinn presented his administration’s fourth annual budget for the State of Illinois. The Governor’s FY2013 budget address to the General Assembly focused on the difficult financial challenges facing the State and the critical need to reduce Medicaid costs and unfunded pension liabilities. In his speech, the Governor said that the recommended budget for FY2013 reflects the reality that there is no easy way for the State to fix its chronic financial problems.…
A week before Governor Pat Quinn’s FY2013 budget address, a panel of Illinois State senators met in Chicago to hear testimony on the State’s major budget challenges: rising Medicaid costs and unfunded pension liabilities. The Senate’s two Appropriation Committees held the joint hearing on February 15, 2012. Senator Heather Steans, who chairs one of the committees, said the hearing was intended to prepare members for the release of Governor Quinn’s recommended budget on February 22.…
In its most recent monthly briefing, the State of Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) published new revenue projections for FY2012 and an early preview of its FY2013 projections, both reduced from previous forecasts. COGFA is a bipartisan joint legislative commission that provides analysis on State economic issues and the fiscal impact of legislative initiatives as well as reports on the State budget throughout the year. As discussed in the Civic Federation’…
The State of Illinois FY2013 Budget Roadmap, issued on January 30, 2012 by the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability, relies on a five-year budget analysis by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS). The HFS analysis is now available on the website of the State’s Budgeting for Results Commission. The HFS analysis sheds light on the complexity of Medicaid funding and provides an unusually long term perspective on State finances. The analysis…
