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A bigger loss than admitted; Plus: Session roundup

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Illinois

* The Tribune had this lede today…

A Cook County judge Tuesday erected a new speed bump in front of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s efforts to broadly expand state-subsidized health care.

But the judge also allowed the governor to move forward on his expansion of a program to screen uninsured Illinois women for breast and cervical cancer.

* Not quite. Bethany explains…

[The judge] decided that the administration was within its rights to extend an existing program for breast and cervical cancer screenings to women age 65 and older. He said the legislature approved $6 million for the program without imposing limits, allowing the department to expand the benefits as long as it was within that $6 million appropriation.

The governor wants to spend far more than $6 million on the cancer screening, but that was not an issue. It could become an issue at trial, if this thing gets that far.

* Daily Herald…

“The judge’s decision is mostly good news,” Blagojevich said at a news conference in Chicago.

Yep. It was an “up” day for the governor.

* As I told you yesterday, the judge did block the Family Care expansion…

The FamilyCare ruling simply requires that people enrolled must work or seek work, Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said.

“We believe most, if not all, enrollees currently meet this requirement,” Ottenhoff said. “We intend to address the issue raised by the court so we can continue to protect health coverage for people in FamilyCare.”

That would have to be done through legislation. We don’t have a great climate for legislative fixes these days.

* Case in point…

In an apparent jab at Blagojevich, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) lent support to a proposed universal health-care system far broader than the failed plan the governor offered last year. Rep. Rosemary Mulligan (R-Des Plaines) called it a political ploy by House Democrats to separate themselves from the governor but still back health care.

Read the bill by clicking here.

* On another session-related note…

A Blagojevich administration plan to reorganize and combine administrative functions of some state agencies is drawing fire from a lawmaker who claims it will be used to award contracts to the governor’s favorites.

Rep. Jack Franks, D-Woodstock, a frequent critic of Gov. Rod Blagojevich, said Tuesday he will try to get the House to block the plan.

“I think the governor has been in so much mischief,” Franks said. “This is one way to give him extraordinary power, to have people totally under his thumb, and then bring in outside consultants to increase our costs.”

“It’s basically no-bid contracts galore for the governor,” Franks said.

However, Greg Wass, who holds the newly created title of chief information officer in the Blagojevich administration, said the latest plan is a “carbon copy” of a smaller reorganization undertaken in 2006.

We’ll see how this plays out.

* Might there be some good news?

Illinois Senate Democrats [yesterday] took the wraps off their version of legislation to get rid of “pay to play” politics in state government.

The measure, an amended version of House Bill 824, would bar contractors who do more than $50,000 in business with the state from contributing to the political funds of any officeholder who awarded the contract. It also would bar those contractors from making political contributions to any of the officeholder’s declared challengers.

The Senate plan differs in some ways from another ethics proposal that passed the House last year but has sat idle in the Senate. Under that legislation, House Bill 1, individuals who have contracts worth $25,000 or more would be prohibited from making political contributions.

Rep. John Fritchey, D-Chicago, sponsored HB1. He said [yesterday] that he thinks the two sides can reach a compromise on ethics legislation that could pass in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

We’ll see. I’m not holding my breath.

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 7:17 am

Comments

The timing of this reorganization plan seems odd. I would think the administration has enough on its plate now.

Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 10:08 am
“Legislative authorization and appropriation”, rather than the technicalities of or “working or seeking work,” seem to be the key concepts underlying the temporary injunction against the FamilyCare expansion. Notwithstanding his good intentions,it is clear that the Governor has abused his executive power by acting without legislative authorization.

The Governor proposed: Let’s do it my way
The Legislature disposed: NO!
The Governor:I dont care.I’ll do it anyway
The Court said: NO-NO!

Comment by Captain America Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 10:19 am
Why does it take law suites from private citizens
to do the work of the General Assembly and the AG? The people of Illinois owe a thanks to these groups and citizens for standing up to the power grab of the Governor

Comment by RAI Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 11:41 am
From a friend at the Hearing on Ag and 4H cuts, there apparently are not a lot of fans of the Governor in the Hearing Room.

Comment by He makes Ryan Look like a Saint Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 1:19 pm
Government reorganizations are a wonderful thing - they give the illusion of progress. Beyond that, however, very little is accomplished other than the passing of state taxpayers money to select “consultants”.

Comment by A Citizen Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 1:57 pm
“From a friend at the Hearing on Ag and 4H cuts, there apparently are not a lot of fans of the Governor in the Hearing Room.”

Really? Had to have a guy on the inside to get that scoop?

Comment by JonShibleyFan Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 2:19 pm
The previous reorg of IT services is costing state agencies MORE. CMS takes state agencies IT budgets and still charges them MORE money for IT services/access to the CMS network/storage etc. And they/Gov’s Office used that (previous reorg) as logic for the latest reorg attempt. They cannot show any savings from the previous reorg and they cannot testify that the latest reorg attempt will save any money. It all boils down to centralizing operations so less eyes can see what is going on, i.e. so they can give out contracts to the CHOSEN ONES with little or no scrutiny.

Comment by save a horse ride a harley Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 5:11 pm
To save a horse ride a harley - you are very correct. The less eyes reviewing contracts the better. Lord forbid you complain that something “just ain’t right” with a contract or a billing. These employees fear retaliation and will not report unethical or questionable contracts. One of them personally told me they put their blinders on every day. What a shame.

Comment by Can't Print My Nickname Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 5:42 pm
Reorganizations and combining services is a farce.
All they do is get all those involved moved into the same office space but they continue to work for their individual bureaus as they did before.
If all funds were combined and everyone was on the same page, it would work but that’s not the plan. The plan is a press pop for the guv.

Speaking of contracts, how many “chosen ones” do you think are called in on Saturdays to plan how to write their proposals to perfectly match the specifics of the bid plan? Just like teaching to the test.

Comment by Disgusted Wednesday, Apr 16, 08 @ 6:09 pm
So few posts on such important topics…is this another sign of dysfunctional government, or lack of interest in real reform?

Comment by Anonymous Thursday, Apr 17, 08 @ 8:05 am