7am News, Sports and Obits
Latest WGIL news
Click to play or
Right click and "Save Target As" to download
Click for Galesburg, Illinois Forecast
Home - Cancellations - Community Events - Contact Us - Mornings - News - Obituaries - Pictures - Programs - Special Events Audio - Sports - Weather
Governor Proposes Major Cuts in Budget
(IRN)-The starting point for Governor Pat Quinn and his budget staff includes more than $500 million in Medicaid spending cuts and a proposal to consolidate some of Illinois' 800-plus local school districts.

The governor, who formally gives his budget speech to a joint session of the Illinois General Assembly at noon Wednesday, is expected to seek no new programs, no new revenue, and no new borrowing. The General Assembly has already, last month, approved an income tax increase which is retroactive to Jan. 1, and has already failed to approve new borrowing to address the state's more than $8 billion backlog of unpaid bills. Those bills are not considered part of the new budget for the twelve months beginning July 1.

The proposal would, among other things, ax the state's portion of the program known as Illinois Cares Rx, as well as the Circuit Breaker program. Also proposed: another reduction in transportation money to local school districts, cutting all funding for regional offices of education, and not hiring any new state troopers or conservation police officers.

Spending caps enacted as part of the income tax increase hold the general revenue fund's budget to about $36.8 billion. The proposal for Fiscal Year 2012 is for $35.4 billion, about $1 billion more than the current year's original budget despite the cuts and caps.

(Source: Illinois Radio Network)
02 16 11 by Newsroom
News management powered by Xpression News

Click here for the WGIL News Archive

Click here for national news

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.