 Extensive delays in reimbursements to state contractors and Medicaid
providers led Comptroller Dan Hynes -- who has repeatedly lamented
Illinois' fiscal condition -- to float the idea of additional
short-term borrowing to pay off the state's billion-dollar bill
backlog. Though the decrease in the backlog has dropped since the
end of 2007, the comptroller's office anticipates that the backlog
will continue to rise in the coming months.Senate Republicans
have consistently voiced concerns over the creation of new state
programs and entitlements, while vendors, hospitals and nursing
homes consistently wait months to be reimbursed by the state. Many
lawmakers support fiscal reforms and restrained state spending in
lieu of additional borrowing.
In other news, days after the U.S. Department of Energy announced
plans to yank federal financing of a $1.8 billion clean-burning
power plant Mattoon, the FutureGen Alliance has announced intentions
to continue with the project.
Though cautiously hopeful, Bomke warned that federal funding is
still needed to get the project off the ground. Illinois'
congressional delegates and state lawmakers have said they will work
with Congress to secure the FutureGen project, which was expected to
bring much-needed jobs and economic revitalization to the region.
Also, 19 Illinois high schools are requesting waivers to be
exempted from a new graduated driver's license requirement that the
General Assembly approved last year. The new law requires new
drivers to spend at least six hours behind the wheel with a driving
instructor.
The mandate has prompted many schools to seek out special waivers
that would allow them to split the six hours of behind-the-wheel
driving between driving simulators and actual behind-the-wheel
experience. The schools are citing the increased cost of hiring
driving instructors as the reason for the waiver requests; the cost
is estimated to exceed $500,000 in many districts.
Finally, the Illinois Senate is about a week away from the
deadline for senators to introduce new legislation. Many members of
the Senate have already begun to file legislation. Because the
second year of the two-year General Assembly cycle is supposed to be
reserved for budget and emergency items, the amount of legislation
that will be filed should be less than last year; however, many
bills that failed to pass last year will be brought back in the 2008
session.
[to top of second column]
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 Lawmakers expect that ethics reform and open-government
legislation will be reintroduced. Many measures passed the House in
2007 but were never called for a vote in the Senate. In addition,
lawmakers are expecting to see legislation that allows some disabled
people to ride mass transit for free, while imposing income
restrictions on free rides for seniors.
Other legislation that may be introduced:
-
Legislation to
create the Identity Protection Act, which will address how both
state and local governments use a person's Social Security
number.
-
At certain
railroad crossings, where there are no crossing gates or
signals, a stop sign would have to be placed on either side of
the railroad crossing.
-
Individuals who
fill out an absentee ballot application for a voter who is in a
nursing home or is otherwise incapacitated must provide their
name and address.
-
Any time
legislation in the Illinois Senate has a majority of the members
listed as either a chief co-sponsor or co-sponsor, the
legislation must be called for a vote. This legislation is in
response to recent ethics reforms that have a majority support
in the Senate but are being blocked in the Senate Rules
Committee by the committee chairman, Sen. Debbie Halvorson,
D-Crete, and Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago.
-
A constitutional
amendment to impose a 10-year term limit on the speaker and
minority leader in the Illinois house and the same term limit
for the president and minority leader in the Illinois Senate.
-
Legislation to
allow the revenue from the 10th casino license to pay for $2
billion in capital transportation funding, which would allow the
state to tap into close to $4 billion in federal matching funds
for road construction.
[Text from file sent on behalf of
Sen.
Larry Bomke by Illinois
Senate Republican staff]
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