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Illinois budget
Quick Hit
by Aricka Flowers
6:55pm
Wed Nov 28, 2012
1 comment

IL House Committee Passes Resolution To Halt Raises For State Employees, Quinn Approves

The Illinois House Revenue Committee passed a resolution on Tuesday that claims the state is too cash poor to pay for the raises of unionized state employees this budgetary year, which ends in June of 2013. The resolution is headed for a full House vote and must also pass the Illinois Senate to actually have an impact.

Gov. Pat Quinn, whose office gave testimony for two days on the state's budget woes, backs the resolution, telling downstate reporters today that it is "just common sense."

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PI Original
by Ellyn Fortino
3:28pm
Mon Nov 26, 2012
1 comment

Young Workers Dubious Of Public Sector Jobs Due To Pension Crisis

Springfield

Illinois has racked up $96 billion in unfunded pension obligations, and that’s left some young people wondering what the state’s biggest political issue of 2012 means for their future. We offer a look at the distrust — and apathy — surrounding public sector jobs and Illinois' pension problems among the state's young workers.

PI Original
by Steven Ross Johnson
6:18pm
Mon Nov 19, 2012
2 comments

Illinois Revenue Projections, Allocation Procedures Need Revamping, Report Finds

Springfield

A new report from the governor’s advisory commission on improving the state’s budget process is calling on lawmakers to find a more accurate way of estimating how much revenue the state takes in, and become more flexible when it comes to how those funds are allocated.

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
6:16pm
Wed Nov 7, 2012
1 comment

Muddled Public Employee Pension Referendum Fails

The state’s biggest political issue of 2012 has been growing unfunded pension obligations to public employees, with the shortfall expected to hit $93 billion by next summer. By comparison, the annual state budget is about $33 billion a year.

Considering this, Illinois voters could have been forgiven for thinking that a failed referendum on yesterday’s ballot regarding the approval of pension benefit increases had something to do with these addressing the deficit. But it really didn’t, and neither the referendum’s merits nor its key political backers were ever made clear. Read more »

Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
4:47pm
Fri Nov 2, 2012

Southern Illinois State Senate Candidates Slam Quinn

Miles south of Springfield, much less Chicago, the 59th district state senate race at the southern tip of Illinois between incumbent Democrat Gary Forby (pictured) and Republican challenger Mark Minor is often a contest of who can best criticize Gov. Pat Quinn, the state’s Democratic governor who hails from the Windy City.

“Beating up on Chicago is a time-honored tradition in southern Illinois,” says John Jackson a political science professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois. “The Democrat is running against the governor as hard as the Republican is.”

Quinn is taking a beating for reasons that go beyond a general wariness of Chicago politicians.

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Quick Hit
by Matthew Blake
4:24pm
Tue Oct 30, 2012

Quinn Gets A Win On Prisons, But Litigation Drags On

Gov. Pat Quinn scored a big victory Friday in his plan to balance the state budget. Arbitrator Steve Biereg ruled that the state acted reasonably in the June ordering of the shut down of seven different corrections and juvenile justice facilities.

However, the legal clash between Quinn and the AFSCME Council 31 public employees union over the closings continues. The conflict will now stretch past the election and, quite possibly, the Illinois General Assembly’s fall veto session scheduled for late November.

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PI Original
by Matthew Blake
4:26pm
Fri Oct 12, 2012

Prescription Drug Limit Worries State Medicaid Advocates

Health Care

The Smart Act that Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law this June contains 62 different ways that the state is supposed to save $1.6 billion each year on Medicaid, the federal-state health care program that cares for the poor, elderly and disabled. Some of these cost-saving items are more difficult to implement than others.