February 8, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

IL college chiefs back Quinn call for more MAP money | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

February 8, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Measure would make it legal to record IL cops in public | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

February 7, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Lawmakers Still Have Questions About Quinn Closing Plan | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Prepaid tuition to stay afloat, even if that means bailout, director says | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

February 7, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Lawmakers still skeptical of Quinn facilities-closure plan | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Director: College Illinois! to stay afloat, even if that means taxpayer bailout | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Quinn okays speed cameras for Illinois | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

February 6, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Struggle for developmentally disabled care jobs | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Tax credit expiration could slow wind’s rise in IL, but still plenty to export | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

IL seeks to add 100K people to Medicaid program | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

By Benjamin Yount | Illinois Statehouse News

address.

In 35 minutes, Quinn outlined his agenda for the spring legislative session, referring to investments in higher education and tax breaks designed to employ more veterans for his 2012 jobs agenda.

However, he only briefly referenced Illinois’ crushing pension and Medicaid debt.

Higher education

Quinn challenged lawmakers to increase the amount of money available to students from low-income families as part of the Monetary Awards Program, or MAP, Grant program. 

In fiscal 2012, the current state budget, Illinois is on pace to spend $420 million. Last year, Illinois spent $390 million. 

But the state will need to balance more spending in the MAP program next year with the hundreds of millions of dollars in state aid payments the state owes to colleges and universities.

But Poshard is quick to say he’d rather see students get more in MAP grants.

Kelly Kraft, Quinn’s budget spokeswoman, said the governor will deliver more specifics on his plans for the MAP program during his budget speech on Feb. 22. 

Job creation credits

The governor touted his job creation history: more jobs at Chicago’s Ford automobile manufacturing plant and Belvidere’s Chrysler automobile manufacturing plant, and of course large increases in the number of soybeans shipped overseas. 

Ford is spending about $117 million and adding 400 jobs, while Chrysler is adding 400 to 500 workers to build newly designed cars.

But Quinn said more needs to be done when he presented his Jobs Agenda for 2012, which he said will “grow our economy by helping our employers, our working families and our veterans.”

The jobs agenda includes investments in high-tech infrastructure to build what he calls “gigabyte” communities, investments in education to have a better trained workforce. 

The governor also wants a tax credit, worth between $5 million and $10 million annually, to help veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars find work. 

Whitley said he doesn’t know why the credit is not more popular, but Quinn’s push to hire veterans may popularize that tax credit. 

“We have 100,000 veterans coming home … and Gov. Quinn is reminding employers that they need to be sensitized to the needs of hiring veterans,” Whitley said. “I think it was a positive element” in the speech.

Medicaid and pensions

“No reform is easy,” Quinn said at the end of his speech. “And reforming our Medicaid and public pension systems will require real political courage.”

Lawmakers blasted the governor for not offering more details. 

Kraft said those details will come in three weeks when the governor delivers his budget address.

Wednesday’s “focus was the vision for our state,” Kraft said.

“It would have been a little more intellectually honest to acknowledge what an overwhelming fiscal crisis the state is facing,” said Redfield. “Even if we really cut down to the core services and increase revenue, we’re still going to have a hard time keeping it together.”

Redfield said that Medicaid spending may be the biggest problem for Illinois this year, adding that Medicaid is “almost insolvable.”

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

ISN fact checks Quinn’s State of the State | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

By Benjamin Yount and Anthony Brino | Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD  —  Jerry and Melanie Howlett didn’t get to watch Gov. Pat Quinn’s State of the State speech Wednesday afternoon.

The Hewlett’s from Tremont, were touring the Capitol with their daughter and two sons.

Jerry Howlett has the time to tour the statehouse because he is out of work.

The former hospital caseworker, who has been unemployed since September, was skeptical of the  governor’s promises of tax credits for employers.

“I’d like to see some tax cuts,” Howlett said. “but that’s not something I think is going to happen.”

Howlett was not the only person skeptical under the statehouse dome on Wednesday. 

Democrats and Republicans, state representatives and state senators said Quinn laid out an agenda that will cost the state money that Illinois does not have. 

State Sen. Christine Johnson, R-DeKalb, said Illinois is looking at a $130 billion pension debt and Medicaid bills that could top $14 billion this year. She doesn’t understand why the governor wants to spend more money on new programs.

“I live in the state of Illinois,” Johnson said. “I don’t know what state Gov. Quinn lives in.”

Johnson, and many Senate Republicans, were quick to say they do not see how Illinois can offer tax credits for families or offer housing opportunities in Chicago while schools and local communities are being shortchanged by the state. 

Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said the governor’s heart is the right place, but the state cannot afford his good intentions. 

“Everyone supports veterans, and kids, and education. But the problem is, how do we pay for that support?” Jacobs said. 

The governor spent most of his 35-minute speech talking up new programs, or highlighting his three years as governor. Quinn only briefly mentioned Illinois’ fiscal woes, and he touched on the need for Medicaid and pension reform. 

Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, said Quinn will need to get specific on Medicaid and pensions in three weeks when the governor delivers his budget address.

“There’s two 800-pound gorillas sitting in the room, and that’s the need for Medicaid reform and the pension situation,”  Sullivan said . “We as a state need to come up with some solutions.”

State Sen. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, used his own circus animal metaphor to criticize Quinn for the same lack of specifics.

“The elephant in the room today was the fiscal calamity that our state is facing,” LaHood said. “And to not have those addressed today was a little bit disconcerting.”

Quinn’s office is quick to say that the budget speech will include more details about how the governor plans to address both pensions and Medicaid financial difficulties. 

But Warren Ribley, director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, said “it’s too early” to say what those details will include.

State Rep. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, said it likely will not matter what Quinn says in the budget speech, just like she said it does not matter what he said in the State of the State speech. 

“I’m very disillusioned. I’m very disappointed,” Tracy said. “But we have to get back to work. Speeches don’t solve problems, but getting back to work does.”

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

IL lawmakers underwhelmed with Quinn’s speech | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

By Andrew Thomason | Illinois Statehouse News

But Republican legislators had harsh criticism for a plan they say will cost the cash-strapped state roughly $500 million.  

During his State of the State address, which came a year after the state’s individual and corporate income tax rates skyrocketed, Quinn said he’d like to create tax credits for families and businesses, invest more money in education and upgrade the state’s aging water systems.

Quinn said his Illinois Jobs Agenda 2012 would create a more job-friendly environment in a state that has seen its unemployment rate hover around 10 percent for the past several months, about 1 percentage point higher than the national average.

Quinn’s jobs program must past through the General Assembly, where legislative leaders, especially those on the right, were skeptical. 

“As he advances new initiatives to create jobs and improve the economy, I look forward to hearing how we can fund these important priorities within a balanced budget,” Cullerton said in a news release.

Specifically, Quinn proposed eliminating the natural gas utility tax, which Republicans estimate will take away around $160 million in state revenue. Quinn said the abolition of the tax on natural gas usage will give Illinois a competitive edge over its neighbors in attracting job-creators.

“Illinois will be the only state in the Midwest without a natural gas utility tax on manufacturers, retailers and everyday families,” Quinn said.

Quinn proposed a tax credit for families with children, which would provide $100 of tax relief annually for a family of four, the governor said.

“This targeted tax relief will stimulate consumer demand, which is 70 percent of our economy. And it will create jobs for our local merchants,” Quinn said.

Quinn also called for investing more in early childhood education, modernizing classrooms with digital textbooks and high-speed Internet access, and providing scholarships for college students.

“Our youngest and most vulnerable citizens need our strongest support. Research has shown that without an early learning foundation, children fall behind in school,” Quinn said.

“I don’t know how that squares with what he himself said just a few weeks ago,” Radogno said.

The last pillar of Quinn’s jobs plan was upgrading the water systems statewide.

Quinn said his plan “will put thousands of people to work replacing broken water mains, building treatment plants, upgrading sewers and cleaning up environmental threats.”

Quinn didn’t outline how he would come up with the $500 million to cover his jobs plan, even as the state faces $8.5 billion in overdue bills despite the individual income tax rate jumping by 67 percent and the corporate income tax rate jumping by 46 percent last January.

The governor’s only mention of funding was: “I look forward to working with you to find the proper funding to meet these urgent needs.”

Requests for details to Quinn’s budget office by Illinois Statehouse News were not answered.

Cross said the state needs to tackle its ballooning Medicaid and pension spending before it looks to this jobs program.

“I’m not sure still to this day (if Quinn) gets the gravity of this situation. He certainly hasn’t demonstrated (that) in what he did today,” Cross said. 

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Quinn lays out jobs plan, cloudy on funding source | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

January 31, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Quinn to focus on jobs, lawmakers want more than talk | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

By Benjamin Yount and Anthony Brino | Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois lawmakers say they want to hear more from Gov. Pat Quinn than just talk about jobs — they want a plan.

Quinn is expected to make employment a cornerstone of his State of the State address at noon Wednesday. 

“Gov. Quinn will lay out an ambitious agenda for creating jobs and paving the way to long-term economic growth,” said Annie Thompson a spokeswoman for Quinn. 

But the governor is going to need more than just talking points to win over lawmakers, including many of his fellow Democrats. 

“One of the issues we have, as a state, is that we’re not considered to be too business friendly,” said state Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Smithton. “That’s an image that we have to change.”

Costello, who represents an area that stretches from Metro East to Pinckneyville, is quick to caution that if Quinn wants to create jobs, those jobs must come from the private sector.

“The government cannot support employment for all,” Costello said.

Todd Maisch, vice president for government relations at the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, which promotes the interests of businesses in the state, agreed.

“We have to give the governor credit. He is willing to engage CEO’s. But we want to see him get outside of his comfort zone and engage employers on many levels,” Maisch said.

Maisch said he too wants to hear “concrete plans” from Quinn.

State Sen. Mike Jacobs, D-East Moline, said the governor must lay out specific and big plans.

“In my district, we have the lowest unemployment in the state of Illinois, and that’s not an accident,” said Jacobs. “We have kept our companies strong. And that’s the one thing we need to focus on, we’re not in this alone.”

The unemployment in the Quad Cities, which includes East Moline, is at 7.8 percent, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

Republicans have less faith in the governor’s message. 

State Rep. David Leitch, R-Peoria, said Quinn has not done enough to make Illinois the kind of place companies want to move to or expand in. 

Leitch said the workers’ compensation reforms, signed into law last year, were not enough to make Illinois competitive. Leitch also points to medical malpractice costs and regulatory hurdles as chains holding the state back.

“I would say the administration has a lot to learn about what it takes to make businesses grow,” said Leitch.

Republican lawmakers are quick to point to the state’s unemployment rate, which last month sat at 9.8 percent. Quinn entered his job in January 2009 with an 8.1 percent unemployment rate, but then watched as the state jobless rate sky rocketed to 11.2 percent in January 2010.

Nationally, the jobless rate dipped to 8.5 percent in December. New unemployment figures will be released Friday.

All told, the state lost 400,000 jobs during the Great Recession, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security. 

In 2011, Illinois added 52,600 jobs, said Greg Rivara, spokesman for the Department of Employment Security. The state has added 95,900 jobs since January 2010, said Rivara. 

State Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford, said Illinois could add thousands more jobs, if the governor would sign legislation to allow new casinos to be built in the state.

Lawmakers approved that plan in May, but have been holding it as they try and negotiate a compromise with Quinn, who does not like the legislation’s carve-out for slot machines to be placed at horse racing tracks.

Rockford is one of five cities hoping for a new casino, but Syverson said he fears the governor’s job message will not include a pledge to sign that pending casino legislation.  

“Clearly in the Rockford area, it is a concern,” said Syverson. “Because if Rockford doesn’t (build a casino) and Beloit, Wis., does, two minutes away, it would have a devastating effect.”

Thompson said in addition to jobs, Quinn will address the Illinois’ pension and Medicaid shortfalls during his State of the State address in the Illinois House Chamber here. 

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

IL lawmakers want more than job talk from Gov. Quinn | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

January 30, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Cutting Illinois Medicaid costs could prove tough | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

January 30, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

IL to struggle with controlling exploding Medicaid costs | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

January 24, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Increased IL higher ed funding goes to pensions | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

January 20, 2012

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

IL looking for hat trick of pension, Medicaid, tax reform | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

By Andrew Thomason and Stephanie Fryer | Illinois Statehouse News

“My administration is committed to increasing community care options and improving the quality of life for people with developmental disabilities and mental health conditions,” Quinn said in a written statement. “The approach we are taking will allow for the safe transition of care for some of our most vulnerable citizens to community care setting.”

The administration said the facilities, which when combined employee about 550 people, would be closed in October. Quinn said most of the lost jobs will be absorbed by the local economies.

While many inside and outside the Legislature have pushed for a transition from state-run facilities to more intimate, personal care offered in community settings, not everyone is happy about the announcement.

Rita Burke is the president of Illinois League of Advocates for the Developmentally Disabled, which lobbies for the developmentally and mentally disabled communities.

People in the facilities “suffer from severe, profound mental retardation to extreme behavior disorders to medical conditions that make them very fragile. So we are disappointed that the governor would choose to balance the budget on the backs of these most vulnerable people,” Burke said.

“One of the concerns when he rolled out his plan … this year was that it wasn’t really a well thought-out plan, and it was rushed,” Murphy said. “This appears to address those concerns.”

This is the first step of Quinn’s effort to move patients with mental health issues and developmentally disabilities from state facilities to community care. The governor said more announcements would be coming later in the year.

Originally reported by Illinois Statehouse News. Read the original article here.

Quinn targets two IL facilities for closure by October | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.