Illinois must stop lapse spending
In mid-summer, as the governor and lawmakers squabbled about Illinois' budget priorities, something more significant, budget-wise, happened behind the scenes. The Department of Healthcare and Family Services quietly shipped more than $1.2 billion in Medicaid bills to the comptroller's office for payment. DHFS had long since burned through its $16 billion spending authority for fiscal year 2007. The start of fiscal year 2008, which began July 1, gave DHFS the new authority it needed to get rid of its billion-dollar backlog. This has become a ritual in Illinois -- foisting Medicaid obligations from the previous year into the new one. It's called lapse spending. It needs to stop.
Shifting these bills enables lawmakers and the governor to pat each other on the back for passing a "balanced" budget. But in reality they're balancing the budget on the backs of Medicaid providers -- nursing homes, doctors, pharmacies, etc. -- sometimes by stretching out the payment reimbursement cycle by several months.
U of I earned award.
It was not just local supporters of Chief Illiniwek who took notice earlier this year when University of Illinois administrators and trustees were skulking around in the shadows as they greased the skids for the ouster of the Chief. The Illinois Press Association noticed as well. Last week, it awarded the UI a "Worsty" award for its effort to circumvent the state's Open Meetings Act and oust Chief Illiniwek in private. The IPA issues these awards annually to publicize abuses of the state law on opening meetings in the hope of discouraging future violations.
Lawrence Eppley, chairman of the UI board of trustees, announced on Feb. 16 that the Chief was out. How did he know that? Well, pursuant to plans to avoid a public showdown, Eppley, acting in concert with UI President B. Joseph White, held individual conversations with trustees that were not subject to the open meetings requirement to determine the consensus of the board. Then he made his announcement. It was not exactly a profile in courage, although it was in keeping with the bureaucratic mentality of trying to sweep tough issues under the rug.