 Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are scheduled back in Springfield next
week.
Though the primaries are over, the upcoming general election in November will
foster continued political posturing rather than resolution of structural
deficiencies, University of Illinois-Springfield Professor Emeritus Kent
Redfield said.
“To have to get religion in a very short period of time, all the time having the
fall elections hanging over your head, that would be obviously much more
interesting and hopefully ultimately more productive than sitting around
posturing,” Redfield said.
Chris Mooney, director of the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at U of
I, also said it’s likely there won’t be a budget until after the November
election while battles over changing Republican seats to Democrat seats, and
visa versa, play out.
Both Mooney and Redfield said lawmakers have potential routes for coming to
terms with the governor on a budget this spring, but the options aren’t likely.
One thing that could force a budget, Mooney said, is court action based on the
recent Illinois Supreme Court case about back pay not being allowed unless
there’s an appropriation.
Mooney said the high court could use that ruling in a potential case resulting
in non-critical state employees not getting paid until there’s a spending plan.
“That might be a huge crisis — the kind of huge crisis that it’s going to take
to bring all the parties to the table here and make the hard decisions and get
this done,” Mooney said.
The Supreme Court decided back in July not to take up cases on direct appeal
dealing with state employee pay absent a budget, but Mooney said that could
change.
Another option, according to both Mooney and Redfield, is for the governor and
House speaker to come to terms on revenue and reforms, though the November
election could hinder any compromise.
By the time the General Assembly gavels in for session next week, Illinois will
be a full nine months into the fiscal year without a budget, and is the last
state in the union without a budget for the current year.
AS BACKLOG OF STATE EMPLOYEE HEALTH BILLS GROWS, STATE FINDS SAVINGS IN PLANS
Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills to cover state employee medical claims is
nearing $3 billion, according to the Illinois Commission on Government
Forecasting and Accountability.
Commission Executive Director Jim Long said because there’s no appropriation,
the state can’t pay medical claims. Many payments are more than a year overdue,
Long said, which puts pressure on medical providers.
“A lot of providers are starting to ask for some payment up front,” Long said.
Long said more than 360,000 members in the state’s various health plans are
being affected.
Those affected are a broad group, including “the executive branch of government,
the legislative, judicial and all of the universities,” he said.
Once an appropriation is made, the state can start paying on the claims and
employees, their dependents and state retirees would then get reimbursed, Long
said.
Illinois State Medical Society President Dr. Scott Cooper cited the lack of
state payments to medical providers as one of the issues that makes it difficult
to recruit new medical professionals.
Despite the tremendous backlog of unpaid medical bills, however, the state was
able to find some savings in health plans.
Long said a recent audit program weeded out thousands of people who weren’t
supposed to be included in the state’s group insurance plan, resulting in
significant savings.
“In total there’s close to 7,500 dependents that were taken off the rolls simply
because they were no longer eligible,” Long said. “The estimated savings on that
is about $32 million.”
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 Additionally, the state was able to find an estimated $250
million in savings over several years by switching all state
retirees to the Medicare Advantage Program, Long said.
NGA DECIDES AGAINST ILLINOIS
Did the Show Me State show more?
With the military’s geospatial-intelligence operation choosing St.
Louis for its next western headquarters, it was unclear whether
Illinois still will devote millions of dollars in infrastructure
improvements to the proposed site in Southwestern Illinois.
In a post to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency website
Thursday, the military information outfit’s Director Robert Cardillo
wrote that the “St. Louis city site is the agency’s preferred
alternative.” That beats out the 182-acre site on the Illinois side
that St. Clair County offered.
Cardillo said Missouri site offers “the most technological, academic
and professional environment for the agency to solve the hardest
intelligence and national security problems entrusted to (the
agency) by the American people.”
Public property and tax dollars were at stake on both sides of the
Mississippi River. But of four sites, three were in Missouri,
including the winning site in St. Louis City.
St. Louis offered nearly 100 acres of land reportedly worth $7
million at no cost to the NGA but upped the offer to match the 182
acres of free land offered by St. Clair County in Southwestern
Illinois. The existing headquarters is in St. Louis, and this month
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay touted the decades-long relationship
between the NGA and the city.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Bruce Rauner said in a statement that the
governor’s office plans to respond to the agency during the comment
period prior to the NGA’s decision being finalized. As of late
Thursday she did not know whether Illinois would still offer $115
million for infrastructure near the St. Clair County site.
The federal government is expected to spend nearly $2 billion on the
new location. The final environmental impact statement from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers was released Friday. The NGA’s final
decision is expected in the next two months.
GROUP WORKS TO GET IN FRONT OF ANY ATTEMPT TO REQUIRE PRESCRIPTIONS
FOR PSEUDOEPHEDRINE
Battling pressure in your sinuses shouldn’t mean putting more
pressure on your family doctor to write prescriptions for cold and
sinus medicine with pseudoephedrine, according to the Illinois
Retail Merchants Association.
Rob Karr with the Retail Merchants Association said in an effort to
battle the illegal production of methamphetamine, there are already
provisions to keep people from getting too much product, including
putting the medicine behind the pharmacy counter.
“You have to go show an ID, you have to sign for it and there’s
specific limits on what you can buy, so there’s already hurdles that
consumers have to cross to get this cold and allergy medicine,” Karr
said.
Oregon and Mississippi have laws requiring a doctor’s prescription
for consumers to get pseudoephedrine and Karr said there have been
similar unsuccessful attempts in Illinois.
Requiring a prescription from a doctor would put not only more
burden and cost on the consumer seeking relief, but also on doctors,
Karr said.
“The kind of doctors that you would likely be impacting here, which
are general practice or family physicians, I haven’t met one that
thinks they’re underworked,” Karr said. “This would certainly
increase the flow of work to their office.”
A poll from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association released
this week says 62 percent of Illinois voters polled don’t like the
idea of having to get a doctor’s prescription for the
over-the-counter medicine.
Currently only people who have been convicted of violating
methamphetamine laws are required to get a prescription for
pseudoephedrine in Illinois.
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