Blagojevich keeps saying he’ll do it, but it’s clearly unconstitutional.
Blagojevich said he would use some of the nearly $500 million in initiatives he called pork that he cut from the state budget to pay for the program. Teresa Kurtenbach, spokeswoman for the Department of Heatlhcare and Family Services, said the state would use “available revenues” to pay for the plan.
Now, Kurtenbach might be talking about something else, but if the Governor is accurate, he cannot do it. Period. Appropriation of money has to come from the General Assembly.
The most likely scenario appears to be expanding eligibility and then letting the spending bankrupt the program, or perhaps just pile up IOUs to take care of next budget cycle. Neither is acceptable. At best it’s a game of legislative chicken. The most bizarre thing is that if the Governor had asked for this in his budget, he could have gotten it in May.
Additionally, we don’t know if this has to go through JCAR–if it does, it’s dead.