The Illinois House has approved a spending plan for FY2013 that would cut the State of Illinois’ expenditures from the level proposed by Governor Pat Quinn and use an additional budget surplus to reduce the State’s backlog of unpaid bills. House Resolution 706, approved on March 29, 2012, calls for spending $32.9 billion from general operating funds in FY2013. That spending level is $858.6…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
