Federal judge’s Illinois Medicaid ruling squeezes state government cash flow

By Craig Lesner, Ted Dabrowski
07/06/2017
Medicaid has ballooned to cover more than a quarter of Illinois’ population, with spending at $5.4 billion, up 141 percent 2015 compared with 2000. Now that a federal judge has ruled Illinois must speed up its Medicaid payments, the state’s Medicaid payment will increase $83 million each month, for a total monthly payment of $376 million.

TAGS: budget, Medicaid, Moody's Investor Service

Fact-checking BGA’s claims on ‘low-spending’ Illinois

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner
05/23/2017
While the Better Government Association has claimed Illinois’ budget contains no fat to trim, a deeper analysis reveals the state has many areas of expensive inefficiency to reform in state and local government costs, the Medicaid program and K-12 education.

TAGS: BGA: Better Government Association, budget, education, local government, Medicaid, municipal government, state worker pay, taxes

Illinois politicians’ remedy for state flirting with recession? Multibillion-dollar tax hikes

By Ted Dabrowski, Craig Lesner
02/08/2017
A new report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability shows Illinois has experienced falling tax collections, which may indicate trouble in the state economy; spending reforms – not tax hikes – are what Illinois needs to right its fiscal ship and boost economic growth.

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Christine Radogno, corporate income tax, income tax, John Cullerton, Medicaid, pensions, property taxes, sales tax, taxes