Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
This first week of May kept us on our toes. Lawmakers endorsed or rejected the governors budget plans, tons of teachers rallied at the Capitol, the speaker calls a special committee hearing and interesting legislation advanced. We also had some deadlines...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
It actually happened. The proposal for a statewide smoking ban scored overwhelming approval in the House Tuesday, with 73 lawmakers voting in favor of the ban and 42 voting against it. Both the House and the Senate approved the same measure, sending it to...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
A lot of drama and legislation zipped through the Capitol this week, so heres a quick view of interesting action in addition to the stuff we wrote about earlier this week:Sen. Gary Forbys proposed minimum one-year electricity rate freeze for Ameren Illi...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
A House committee approved a so-called supplemental budget Wednesday afternoon that would give the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services the authority to distribute $2.4 billion in federal funds over two fiscal years to reimburse health ca...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
The Illinois comptrollers office says the state missed the boat in early April to do three things at once: 1) reduce its backlogged Medicaid bills by half, 2) activate the second half of a program that distributes federal dollars to hospitals that care f...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Deanese Williams-Harris offered the following observation:On stage, Gov. Rod Blagojevich repeatedly campaigns for his health care initiatives as following the Biblical Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Behind the stage, howev...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
This weeks events provided little evidence of how things will play out before the state legislature reaches its constitutional deadline of May 31, but some Statehouse scenes throughout the week could hint at the status of the governors policy proposals ...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
If Gov. Rod Blagojevichs revenue idea to create a gross receipts tax fails to get legislative approval this spring (or summer), the governor is willing to consider other revenue sources, according to John Filan, Blagojevichs former budget director and c...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Deanese Williams-Harris wrote the following post.The results of a recent state employee ethics survey paint a gloomy picture of the environment in state offices. The survey, conducted by the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission, surveyed 402 random employ...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
CorruptionI'm actually talking about my computer's hard drive, which has "major corruption." While my laptop is in the shop, I apologize if my blogging is rather light this week. I'm still crawling at a snail's pace, but enough sob stories. On to some new...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Maneuvering inside the Statehouse was interesting today. About 1,000 people stood shoulder to shoulder on the three tiers of the Capitol rotunda and waved American flags. They were showing support measures that would grant drivers certificates to immigra...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Two juicy debatesIn downtown Springfield, the Illinois Commerce Commission heard Ameren Illinois president Scott Cisel defend his recent decision to end some of the utilitys electricity rate relief to downstate customers. In the Capitol, Gov. Rod Blagoje...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
The mess over electricity rates just got messier. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to allege that 15 power companies manipulated a power auction last September. The auction set electric...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
This just in: The Illinois Commerce Commission asked Ameren in a letter to explain all the threats theyre making about how a negative credit rating (see the March 13 blog below) would lead to drastic measures and hurt customer service. Specifically, the ...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Shortly after the Illinois Commerce Commission approved a plan Monday to reimburse some Ameren Illinois customers for high electricity bills, the utility began reconsidering that proposal because Moodys Investor Service downgraded the utilitys credit ra...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Gov. Rod Blagojevichs budget proposal for the next fiscal year now goes to the General Assembly. Many Democratic and some Republican lawmakers applauded parts of his plan, but theres a lot of negotiating to be done before the spring sessions constituti...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich proposed levying new taxes and floating bonds pay for his spending plans, particularly universal health care, education and pension obligations. Heres the breakdown. Reaction from legislators and groups from around the state will c...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Tom Johnson, tax expert and president of the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois, breaks down Gov. Rod Blagojevich's budget proposal for the next fiscal year with these highlights. The governor will give his annual budget address and combined State of the S...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
The House conducted a rare Committee of the Whole Tuesday that included hours of testimony about Illinois electricity rates. Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois customers have experienced increases ranging from 24 percent to as high as 300 percent (a...
Posted by Illinois Issues blog 1 year ago.
Nothing has gone as planned this week, so here are some links that could be useful throughout the spring session. They provide thinking points about 1) the Illinois GOP, 2) Illinois poverty and 3) Illinois' financial health (and other major policy issues)...
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