With two weeks left before the constitutional deadline to approve a 2009 state budget, the House will finally discuss a spending plan this week. Forget about a bipartisan effort in developing the priorities and levels of funding as the House Democrats are developing their plan while the Senate Democrats and governor are building another. There has been no committee debate on these issues.

I will continue to advocate in committee for living within our revenue levels while funding past commitments and critical state needs. Watch next week as I will apprise you of how things unfold.

Governor's New Focus on Higher Education Cuts: As I have been reporting, the State of Illinois will end the fiscal year on June 30 with a revenue shortfall and large pile of unpaid bills. Revenue estimates still range from $600 million to $750 million less than budgeted while expenditures could top more than $1.5 billion over planned leaving a budget hole of over $3 billion when we add in prior year unpaid bills.

There has been no serious effort by the executive branch to manage the budget so we have seen panic last minute efforts to cut certain areas of the budget like agriculture, conservation, road maintenance and parks. Citizens and legislators joined together to successfully oppose the governor's actions and funds have been authorized when the comptroller has money to write the checks.

Now, the governor is focusing his attention on cutting funding for universities and community colleges. Higher education is clearly not a priority for the governor. State higher education funding today is at levels of nearly a decade ago.

I joined with House colleagues to draft a resolution which points out the critical importance of our 9 public universities and 48 community colleges to workforce development and a prosperous state economy. The resolution recalls how state support and partnership with higher education until 2002 has achieved critical state priorities, kept tuition at affordable levels and maintained investments in buildings and infrastructure. Once again, I encourage citizens to become engaged and join me in combating the governor on his irresponsible fiscal policies.

As a new crop of students graduate from high school and older citizens seek to retrain their skills for better jobs, college costs must be kept at affordable levels. I will continue to encourage the governor to implement the reforms already suggested by the legislature, to target cuts in areas that least disrupt services, and stop expanding programs.

Audit Reveals Mismanagement: The Auditor General released his findings last week on the prompt payment compliance and Medicaid payment process of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services agency (HFS). In a nutshell, the department delays payment for services provided by Medicaid providers for an average of 3 months and then only reimburses them at about 20 cents on the dollar.

According to the report, an average of $1.5 billion of unpaid Medicaid claims have been carried into the next fiscal year over each of the past three years. The audit found that in FY2006, it took the department an average of 6 days to process a claim, but 57 days to submit the claims to the state comptroller for payment. It also took an average of 87 days to notify providers of rejected services. State and federal agencies that manage Medicaid and Medicare are limiting expenditures by rejecting bills after services have been delivered. It's a sure formula for bankrupting healthcare providers and deceiving patients who thought they had coverage for services.

As a result of the HFS's negligence, unpaid claims have accrued a “potential liability” of $81 million in Prompt Payment Act interest charges since the year 2000. These are dollars that our state could better use for education, roads, or mental health programs, but the mismanagement of HFS has tied us to paying this penalty. The policies of this administration are forcing healthcare providers to borrow money just to meet their payrolls while waiting for state payments.

I have called for a public hearing this week on the practices documented in this audit to shine public attention on the damage being done to our healthcare system. Hopefully we can alter the policies of this administration, before more providers stop offering services to Medicaid clients.

 Building the Supply of Illinois Nurses: A legislative briefing was held last week about how our state over the next six years plans to reduce the shortage of thousands of nurses who provide a critical component of care for all ages of citizens. The plan was developed by the Illinois Center for Nursing, various state agencies and the governor's staff.

The workforce development plan includes creating more interest in a nursing career, expanding the capacity of nurse education programs at colleges, universities and hospitals, and retention of experienced nurses. The Illinois Board of Higher Education implemented a pilot grant program two years ago to increase nursing degree production, student retention and passage rates on professional licensure examinations.

One of those grants was awarded to Northern Illinois University who has used the money to pay faculty and expand the number of students in the nursing program.

Given the current fiscal climate in Illinois and the governor's priorities, I am skeptical the plan will be funded sufficiently to achieve its goals. Therefore we should start by increasing awareness in middle school and job training centers about career opportunities in the nursing industry. Partnerships with healthcare providers might also provide the extra faculty needed to expand training programs.

Unless we expand the number of nurses, the current pool of nurses will continue to shrink as people are burned out with longer hours and increased case loads.

 Encouraging Healthy Lifestyles: Legislation passed the House last week that I co-sponsored to encourage insurance companies to offer wellness coverage. Chronic illness tied to individual lifestyle choices are causing rising medical costs and diminished results in treatment. By providing incentives for individuals to make positive healthy lifestyle changes, we can reduce chronic illnesses, and ultimately healthcare costs.

House Bill 4940 says incentives for the coverage may include reduced premiums, co-payments, or deductibles.

 Weathering Difficult Economic Times: My office is receiving a growing number of calls and letters from people concerned about our economy and asking what the state is doing to turn things around. Regarding the mortgage loan situation, I am supporting bills to help restructure loans for borrowers, to make money available to banks to restructure loans, and to educate consumers about the options and consequences of choices they make in home purchases.  

As gas prices continue to skyrocket, I am surprised that the solutions I have joined in supporting are not being allowed for debate by Democrat leaders. Our state could implement a gas sales tax holiday and rebate taxes directly to consumers. Perhaps 20 cents a gallon rebate doesn't sound like much but it helps. I encourage citizens feeling the pressures from outrageous gas prices to contact Speaker Madigan and urge him to release these ideas for debate in the House.

Then we could focus on making biofuels more available, working with refineries to expand capacity, encouraging consumers to convert to more fuel efficient vehicles, and changing our driving patterns. Trucking companies have found ways to save thousands of dollars by slowing their driving speeds, adjusting their routes and combining trips.

Others are feeling the pinch of rising costs influenced by fuel costs like food, utilities, and garbage service. The federal government food stamp program supplements family food needs in an emergency. The current situation is forcing families to evaluate their food choices like eating out versus preparing food at home; the percent of prepared foods consumed rather than making a meal from scratch; and relying once again on foods we can grow in the backyard garden. Families will also have to face what they buy—food and fuel or the latest electronic product and going on far away vacations.

We must remember that it is not traditional for Americans to expect government to solve every problem. Government fiscal policies play a role, but individual attitudes, choices, and creative thinking also influence our economy.

Individual creativity and effort has made our country great, not government mandates, price controls, and regulations. I will continue to help connect individuals with state safety net programs but such support is only temporary.

Let's continue to take responsibility for our own choices, job skills, and personal effort. Let's not panic, but reach out to help each other through these economic times. Neighbor helping neighbor, focusing on productivity, and thinking up new solutions like previous generations have done.

Former governor, senator, and now University of Oklahoma President David Boren recently wrote A Letter to America about ingenuity, dreams and government involvement. Give it a read and let me know what you think.