Leatherneck Nation

leatherneckcountry wrote:House has passed a initial budget let's see if they can finally get this figured out.

Looks like it's something like step 1 of 20, but it is a step in the right direction.


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The federal judge has just lowered the hammer on the State.

Judge Lefkow orders the State to pay $586 million each month for any Medicaid vouchers that come in starting after today.

Lefkow also orders the State to pay its $2 billion backlog of Medicaid bills over the next year by getting backlog down to FY15 level.

Looks like we are back to the usual game-playing in Springfield.

Speaker Mike Madigan has announced that there will be no votes on the budget today or tomorrow.

The Peoria Journal-Star has seen enough. Today's Editorial is entitled: "Don't come home 'til done". They say "It really is pitchforks and torches time in Springfield".

You can read their full editorial here:
http://www.pjstar.com/opinion/20170701/ ... e-til-done

So the house approved a spending plan and a tax hike Rauner says that he will veto the tax hike.

Four House Republicans with state universities in their district voted YES:
EIU - Phillips
WIU - Hammond
NIU - Pritchard
SIUC - Bryant

i guess I'm confused can the budget pass without the tax hike or are they linked together.

leatherneckcountry wrote: Sun Jul 02, 2017 9:12 pmCan the budget pass without the tax hike, or are they linked together.

They are linked, but were voted on separately.

The income tax hike received 72 votes with 15 of those coming from Republicans--including Norine Hammond of Macomb.

The Senate will vote on those today. If the Senate concurs, it will go to Rauner who has promised a veto. That will necessitate veto-override votes in both houses.

This proposed budget contains a 10% reduction in higher education funding. Apparently that is a 10% cut from July 1, 2014 (the last year that we had a budget). Whether that will be enough to appease the Accreditation Council remains to be seen. But the damage is already underway. Families of current high school students may now be looking at out-of-state options. Many will not want to risk spending thousands of dollars on an Illinois state university that may lose accreditation before their child graduates.

If enrollment is down 10% from 2014 (for most of the universities I am sure it is), I don't see how the accreditation body could find fault with a 10% budget cut. The remaining students should be getting the same or even better level of attention, in theory at least. I am sure they look at a lot more than just the appropriated dollars in making their decision.

These are the areas of concern that the Higher Learning Commission listed in their June 22 letter to the Governor and the members of the General Assembly:

• Increased tuition and fees for students and loss of MAP money for needy students;
• Significantly declining student enrollments;
• Loss of faculty and staff and elimination of academic programs and services;
• Canceled capital projects and cuts to plant operations, further diminishing jobs; and,
• Depleted or diminished cash reserves and loss of grant and charitable donation income.