Rep. Greg Harris • 13^th District

Springfield Update • March 11, 2011

FY11 Budget Cuts and FY12 Approp Allocation

First, some encouraging news.  Many of you know that I, along with colleagues in both parties from every corner of Illinois reacted with outrage 2 weeks ago when the Governor’s Office attempt to totally eliminate funding for substance abuse treatment for non-Medicaid eligible individuals, teen reach, domestic violence prevention, rape victim assistance and other prevention programs.

On Wednesday, Secretary of Human Services Saddler informed us that a substantial portion of funding for those programs will be restored for this fiscal year so that those programs will not be totally eliminated.  There will be cuts to budgeted funding, as we fully expect in this budget crisis, but entire networks of critical public health and safety programs will not be totally eliminated.

Also, following in-depth discussions with the leadership at Swedish Covenant and Children’s Memorial Hospital I have been raising concerns with Secretary of Healthcare and Family Services Hamos about mitigating substantial disruptions to our hospitals as the Department reforms and reshapes the Medicaid reimbursement system.

For many hospitals that serve substantial Medicaid and uninsured populations, too rapid of a shift in what all agree is an archaic funding system could endanger the financial health of these hospitals and put them at risk.  I believe we must move carefully to reform Medicaid and create Accountable Service Organizations, PCCM and other more modern healthcare delivery structures, but smooth any negative impacts on hospital and communities during the transition.

The House took the first formal step in our new Budgeting for Outcomes process this week with the unanimous adoption of HR110 that establishes the base revenue which we will use to fund appropriations for FY12.  That amount is $33.173 billion.  The entire Resolution can be seen here: http://ilga.gov/legislation/97/HR/PDF/09700HR0110ham001.pdf

The next step will be approving HR156 which will divide those revenues between the 5 appropriations committees so that the actual allocation to agency and program budgets can begin.

The Appropriations Committee and Revenue Committee Chairs met this week and after looking at a variety of options to fairly allocate the money, settled on an adjusted rolling average of allocations over the last several years.

The full House will be asked to vote to accept this distribution next week. The proposed allocations are here:

In the House, the Democrats and Republicans have been working cooperatively on the budget process so far, which I believe is a hopeful sign.

However, the Senate Republicans held a press conference demanding a draconian and unsustainable $4-6 billion in additional cuts which would virtually decimate all healthcare, human service, public safety and education programs across Illinois. They said they had a plan but were not willing to announce it. Time will tell.

As we move forward through this process, which MUST be completed by midnight on May 31, I appreciate the many suggestions you have provided. As always, you can send your thoughts and comments to me at greg@gregharris.org