At the end of the month, the Board of Education for Chicago Public Schools will vote on the District’s $5.6 billion operating budget for FY2014. The total budget of $6.6 billion is supported by local, state and federal revenues and other resources, including $761.6 million of appropriated fund balance. This blog focuses on the State of Illinois’ resources for CPS. The State of Illinois will…
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the bond ratings for seven of the nine public universities in Illinois on August 9, 2013. The ratings include a negative outlook for all of the institutions. The action from Moody’s comes after a review of the finances of the State’s university system which began on June 10, 2013, less than a week after the agency downgraded the State’s General Obligation…
The scheduled rollout of Medicaid managed care in Illinois has been delayed by six months so hospitals can set up their own healthcare networks for Medicaid patients. The new networks, known as Accountable Care Entities (ACEs), are intended to cover children and families. The State’s Medicaid agency, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), originally intended to enroll…
As the State of Illinois enters the fifth year of its $31-billion Illinois Jobs Now! capital spending program, revenue sources approved to fund the projects are still lagging far behind original projections. Revenues deposited in the Capital Projects Fund in FY2013 from dedicated taxes and increased fees approved by the General Assembly in FY2010 are between $300 million and $500 million short…
The following opinion piece by Civic Federation President Laurence Msall was published by Crain's Chicago Business on July 23, 2013. Long-term financial pressures on the state of Illinois and our local governments are continuing to grow at an unsustainable rate as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on pension reform. So far this struggle has resulted in little more than public sparring among…
On July 22, 2013, Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation to allow Illinois to expand its Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act beginning in January 2014. Illinois is among 23 states that are expected to join the Medicaid expansion, according to a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The District of Columbia is also participating. As of July 2013, six states were still…
An increase in the cigarette tax increase designed to provide additional funding for the Illinois Medicaid program generated more revenues than expected despite a drop in sales and hoarding of tax stamps prior to the effective date of the tax increase. As discussed here, the $1-per-pack increase was enacted as part of an overhaul of the Medicaid program that sought to eliminate a funding gap of $…
Charged with finding a solution to the State of Illinois’ pension crisis, a legislative conference committee is considering a reform framework proposed by public university presidents. The central feature of the university proposal is a compounded automatic annual benefit increase set at half of the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Current Illinois retirees and employees…
Amidst a flurry of reports on the State of Illinois’ inability to solve its ongoing pension crisis and worst bond rating of all 50 states, a new study claims that the State’s $96.8 billion unfunded pension liability poses no risk of default to bondholders. The report, published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, compares Illinois’ current financial woes to the last state to…
The FY2014 budget for the State of Illinois approved by the General Assembly has an operating deficit of $89 million, according to documents published in connection with an upcoming State bond sale. The legislature’s budget authorizes General Funds spending of $35.699 billion for the year that begins on July 1, 2013, the bond documents show. General Funds revenues are projected at $35.610 billion…
