Moody's Investors Service

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

Moody’s clears the air: Illinois under review for possible downgrade to ‘junk’ status because of debt crisis

By Michael Lucci
07/05/2017
Though the Illinois House of Representatives appears close to overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a tax hike budget plan, and thereby ending Illinois’ more than two years without a full-year budget, Moody’s Investors Service has said it might still downgrade the state’s credit, largely due to Illinois’ unsustainable debt.

TAGS: Bruce Rauner, budget, credit rating, Illinois House of Representatives, Moody's Investor Service, veto

Moody’s downgrades 7 Illinois universities, 5 are junk

By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner
06/13/2017
Illinois universities have hiked tuition and relied on state subsidies to pay for exorbitant administrative salaries — and now credit rating agencies are punishing them for that destructive behavior.

TAGS: budget, credit rating, CSU: Chicago State University, EIU: Eastern Illinois University, higher education, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Moody's Investor Service, NIU: Northeastern Illinois University, University of Illinois, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, WIU: Western Illinois University