Leglislative Action

By CYNTHIA PETERS

Assembly agenda: from fair financing to health costs

TO GET a look at the General Assembly's agenda — and spot the political strategies that have been worked out thus far — in late March Illinois Issues surveyed the leadership teams under House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, House Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels, Senate President Philip J. Rock and Senate Minority Leader James A. "Pate" Philip. Despite the fact that politics will figure prominently in this election year, the Democratic and Republican agendas for the spring 1984 session appear identical.

According to lawmakers on all four partisan leadership teams, the issues facing the Illinois General Assembly this year are: tying funding of elementary and secondary education to reform, controlling the skyrocketing cost of health care and monitoring hazardous waste — including spent nuclear fuel. In addition to those blockbusters, lawmakers agreed that they would look at ways to finance the 1992 Chicago World's Fair. House Speaker Michael J. Madigan's agenda also contained two issues not mentioned by other lawmakers: administrative reform of worker's compensation, and merit selection of judges.

Reform and funding of elementary and secondary education were the most frequently listed in the survey, but most lawmakers said they expect little major reform action this spring. As Rep. Woods Bowman, chairman of the House Appropriations II Committee, put it: "There's not a general consensus on what reform is."

As to funding, almost everyone surveyed said that the General Assembly will try to find more money for elementary and secondary education. And those on the leadership teams suggested several ways to do this: The General Assembly could squeeze a little more money out of the budget by adjusting the human service priorities in Thompson's budget — if revenue projections hold. It could find new sources of revenue for education, such as the local income tax already under consideration, but Bowman pointed out that such a tax increases the disparities between rich and poor districts. The legislature could restructure property tax sources of revenue by putting maximum and minimum caps on farmland assessments, which is also under consideration, and that may help some rural districts. The General Assembly could also try to adjust the school aid formula — a mechanism which some want to tinker with and others don't. From the survey, it appears the session will produce much debate on education funding.

As for the issue of health care costs, lawmakers said they are still wrestling with ways to control them. (State employees are covered through benefits negotiated with unions, and the poor through the Medicaid program administered by the Department of Public Aid.) In the survey, this issue centers on the state's reimbursement of hospitals and nursing homes serving the poor and costs of health insurance for state employees. As for hospital and nursing home reimbursements, Bowman said: "We have to do something. The budget is too tight to have [those kinds of] major expenditures." But health care is a political issue, said Rep. Alan J. Greiman (D-l, Skokie), an assistant majority leader. "Some issues have to be done in [the] fire of political debate," he said. To make progress on the reimbursement issues this session, lawmakers apparently need specific proposals by the governor or the legislative leaders.

The best chance for action appeared to be in reimbursements to nursing homes, since it's a "must" with the speaker. "The nursing homes were put on notice last November," Madigan's chief of staff Gary LaPaille said. The speaker said then that the legislature would provide no increase in state reimbursements without reform. Last fall Madigan's task force on nursing home reimbursement developed H.B. 2215, sponsored by Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-26, Chicago). The House Democrats were on the verge of passing it during the veto session when negotiations with the nursing homes broke down.

As another solution to nursing home and hospital reimbursement costs, Greiman said the legislature could try to set up another health finance authority. Two years ago, however, the hospitals' "guerilla warfare" over rules and regulations sent the first such authority up in flames before it could return the fire. According to Assistant Majority Leader Carol Moseley Braun (D-25, Chicago), lawmakers could try to simply cap reimbursement costs to hospitals and nursing homes, or set up an innovative system where the state would prepay hospitals and provide incentives to standardize, if not reduce, costs. Under another option, Rep. Sam Vinson (R-90, Clinton), an assistant minority leader, said the state might cut reimbursement costs by changing Department of Public Aid rules which allow Medicaid patients to choose their hospital or nursing homes.

Just as legislators are concerned with controlling state expenditures for health care, the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and businesses which offer group insurance to their employees are also concerned about costs in the private sector, as are people who must buy their own coverage.

Hazardous waste issues were high on all agendas, partly because of politics. The solution to these issues, which involve the transportation, storage and disposal of both hazardous and nuclear

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wastes, is being sought by Madigan with his task force, Thompson with another task force, and Rock and Atty. Gen. Neil F. Hartigan, who have a joint task force. Each wants the credit for offering solutions which could strike a balance protecting the public health without overburdening business.

Legislators were already hearing about a community right-to-know bill, similar to the workers' right-to-know bill the legislature passed last year. The idea is to inform citizens whenever toxic materials could affect them.

As for the World's Fair, it appears the leadership teams are prepared to act. Legislators said they would look at ways of enhancing tourism to help offset the costs of financing the fair and an expansion of McCormick place. While working on the issue, legislators hope to steer clear of squabbles over these issues within the city of Chicago.

The General Assembly began its spring session on March 27. In this appropriations year, Rock has ordered the Senate Rules Committee to tighten the flow of substantive legislation, while Madigan has decided to allow as many substantive bills as possible within the deadlines.

EFC's revenue projections

THE legislature's Economic and Fiscal Commission (EFC) has estimated that general funds revenue will be $9,657 billion in fiscal 1985 — $10 million above the $9,647 billion projected by the governor's Bureau of the Budget (BOB) (see "Fiscal '85," pp. 11-14). Both estimates include about $55 million in new revenues the governor says will be generated if the legislature approves his new "tax management" incentives.

The EFC's hopes and fears regarding economic recovery agreed with the BOB's. In its March estimates the EFC said: "The prospects for economic expansion in Illinis are good as long as the national recovery continues to provide increasing demand for durable equipment produced in Illinois. If the national recovery falters, as many economists are predicting, the State expansion will end quickly and the Illinois economy could remain depressed for the forseeable future.

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