Capitol Updates: May 31

Health care  On Memorial Day, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 26, which drastically expands the state’s Medicaid program and is one of the key provisions of implementing ObamaCare. During yesterday’s Senate floor debate, state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, presented the bill that appropriates the funds for fiscal year 2014’s human services budget. Steans admitted that the...

Health care 

On Memorial Day, the Illinois General Assembly passed Senate Bill 26, which drastically expands the state’s Medicaid program and is one of the key provisions of implementing ObamaCare.

During yesterday’s Senate floor debate, state Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, presented the bill that appropriates the funds for fiscal year 2014’s human services budget. Steans admitted that the state’s Medicaid system is “broken.” This was interesting, given that just days earlier she and her caucus voted to expand this broken system.

On a positive note, it appears highly unlikely that another provision of ObamaCare implementation, which would implement a state-funded health insurance exchange, will be voted on before the spring legislative session adjourns. As we have said before, if ObamaCare isn’t good enough for Congress, it’s not good enough for Illinois.

Pensions

Earlier this week, it seemed as if the General Assembly might adjourn without passing pension reform. The stalemate between Senate President Cullerton and House Speaker Madigan on their respective pension bills, Senate Bill 2404 and Senate Bill 1, stuck until yesterday. The Senate voted on Madigan’s pension reform bill, which keeps Illinois in the same broken pension system; but the proposal was rejected late last night. Immediately after the Senate adjourned, Madigan proceeded to an after-hours meeting at the executive mansion with Gov. Pat Quinn, who later tweeted that “SB 1 gets the job done” and urged the Senate to reconsider the vote.

Another development on the pension front includes the House’s passage of a pension cost-shift for Illinois’ state universities and community colleges under Senate Bill 1687. The Institute supports local pension accountability, but it would be premature to implement a cost-shift that does not apply to all of the state’s local school districts, especially before the General Assembly proves itself capable of advancing a comprehensive pension reform bill. The bill is now awaiting a vote from the Senate. The bottom line is that SB 1687 is not done right and fails to achieve real pension reform.

As they should be, the credit rating agencies are prepared to downgrade Illinois (yet again) should the General Assembly adjourn tonight without passing pension reform, as the Institute predicted in January. This afternoon, Moody’s Investors Service issued a warning to the state of Illinois of “an imminent downgrade” to its credit rating if it fails to enact pension reform. As if the downgrade the state awaits since voting to expand Medicaid earlier this week wasn’t enough. Don’t forget that Illinois already has the worst credit rating in the nation.

The longstanding question lingers: will Illinois’ lawmakers pass pension reform? With just hours remaining in the scheduled spring legislative session, only time will tell.