March 12, 2010

Springfield, IL – A measure purporting to offer Medicaid reform was advanced out of the Senate on March 12 that Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno (R-Lemont) said was a step in the right direction, while cautioning that lawmakers need to do more if they want to fundamentally address the problems with Illinois’ Medicaid program.

Senate Republicans attempted to include reforms that would tighten up eligibility requirements, institute a true managed care system allowing the state to use an HMO, and advocated for a moratorium on new Medicaid programs. However, those suggestions were rejected on a partisan role call.

“I don’t want anyone to fool themselves into thinking that we have reformed Medicaid with Senate Bill 3707. This is not comprehensive managed care reform,” Radogno said.

Radogno explained that Senate Bill 3707 seeks to increase the number of Medicaid enrollees who are placed in a managed care program, while also limiting lapse period spending. The senator said a loophole in state law has allowed governors to portray deficit spending as balanced. This practice has contributed to the state’s enormous Medicaid liability.

March 10, 2010

Despite Illinois’ overwhelming deficit, on March 10 Gov. Pat Quinn presented a “borrow and spend” budget that the Senate Republican Caucus says may be the most irresponsible budget ever submitted to the General Assembly.

“We saw a speech today that was short in many ways,” said Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno. “It was short time-wise, short on specifics, short on ideas and, in general, short on leadership at a time when we desperately need some.”

Sen. Radogno said that the governor’s budget proposal is the same song and dance as last year, noting, “Who would have thought that after Blagojevich was gone for a year we could be worse off—and we are worse off. We are not making any progress.”

Not only is the budget proposal out of balance by almost $5 billion—violating the governor’s constitutional duty to propose a balanced budget—under the plan presented by Quinn nearly a fifth of General Funds spending doesn’t have a single penny to back it up.

The Governor also advanced a 33 percent increase on the state income tax, proposing a surcharge from 3 percent to 4 percent for education funding. However, Senate Republicans stressed that this $3 billion increase was obviously a tactical maneuver to pressure lawmakers into increasing taxes.

March 5, 2010

Legislative committees met continuously during the week as Senate lawmakers attempted to move all Senate bills out of committee by the scheduled March 5 deadline.

The Senate Executive Committee considered legislation that would require a photo of any prisoner who received early release to be posted online, while additional measures would increase the speed limit for cars and trucks to 70 mph on rural interstates and allow $300 million in short-term borrowing for health care providers.

Following reported problems and abuses related to Gov. Pat Quinn’s “MGT Push” inmate early release program, Senate Bill 3411 was introduced to make public identifying information and a photograph of any inmate who is released earlier than was delineated in their initial sentence. The information would not only include the inmate’s name and age, but also his or her physical attributes, address, the offense that was committed and the county where the conviction took place.