As the State of Illinois nears its deadline for moving Medicaid recipients into managed care, three managed care organizations have been disciplined for providing poor quality medical care or failing to comply with operational requirements. The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) announced on November 14, 2014 that Harmony Health Plan, Family Health Network and Illinois…
Nearly all indicators point to positive economic growth in the State of Illinois for the fifth consecutive year in 2015 but due to a change in income tax rates, State government finances remain in crisis. In a report issued earlier this month on the results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2015, which began on July 1, 2014, the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) reviewed the State’s…
The State of Illinois will need to increase contributions to its pension funds by $682.0 million in the next budget year, according to preliminary amounts released by the State’s five retirement systems. Total pension contributions required by State law are estimated at $7.5 billion in the year that ends on June 30, 2016, up from $6.9 billion in FY2015. The steep increase is mainly due to…
When the Illinois Jobs Now! capital spending program was approved in 2010 the State also approved a series of dedicated revenue sources intended to fund new borrowing costs outside the State operating budget. As previously sold capital bonds were retired, it was anticipated that the cost for new bond funded capital projects would fall outside the operating budget. However, five years into the…
As previously discussed here, the enacted FY2015 budget for the State of Illinois includes several budgetary gimmicks intended to make up for the loss of revenues associated with the expiration of the temporary income tax increases halfway through the fiscal year. Two of these measures include shifting funds to pay for FY2015 General Funds expenses, which masks the growth in spending when…
Whether the State of Illinois has spent more or less on education in the last five years has recently been the subject of intense debate. This blog post examines various factors that affect the calculation of education spending trends and expands on the Civic Federation’s recent report on the State’s enacted budget for FY2015. The Illinois State Board of Education provides resources for…
Municipal bankruptcies are very rare but a spate of filings, including the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history by the City of Detroit, and ongoing municipal budgetary stress around the country has led to discussions of what, if anything, states should do to assist distressed cities. This blog will provide an overview of current state statutes that govern fiscally stressed…
This analysis finds that the State of Illinois' FY2015 enacted budget represents a return to unsustainable fiscal practices including borrowing for operations and underfunding known costs. This spending plan will increase Illinois’ backlog of unpaid bills to $6.4 billion at the end of FY2015, the first year-end increase since FY2012. Additionally, the budget fails to fund nearly $500 million in…
In the past few months, it has become evident that Illinois vastly underestimated the number of newly eligible recipients who would sign up for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. However, the fiscal implications of the unexpectedly strong enrollment remain unclear. Governor Pat Quinn said on September 30, 2014 that 468,000 newly eligible individuals had enrolled in Illinois’ Medicaid…
As recently as 2011, the State of Illinois projected its backlog of unpaid income tax refunds could increase to more than $1.0 billion but by the end of FY2014 nearly all refunds were paid. In FY2015, for the second year in a row, the State transferred revenues originally diverted to pay for refunds back into the operating budget. In FY2014 the State ended the year with only $1.6 million in…
