The Illinois House Thursday approved a rough outline for steep reductions on everything from elementary schools and colleges to healthcare for the poor.Virtually all parts of state government would be forced to cut spending. House Revenue Committee chair State Representative John Bradley says this will be a difficult process. Bradley says the measure requires cutting Medicaid by $2.7 billion, or about 14 percent. Spending on services from schools to prisons would fall by about $900 million. The measure calls for paying about $1.3 billion in overdue bills, or about 16 percent of the backlog. It also increases the state's annual contribution to government retirement systems. That doesn't leave much for everything else, in fact the proposal is five percent less than the government spent last year.
Representative Greg Harris is a Democrat from Chicago. He says it's important to make those difficult choices now: "because if we make them six months from now or a year from now, they're only going to be worse." The measure passed with bipartisan support, but 16 representatives voted against it ... mostly Democrats who do not want to cut so much. The plan now goes to the Senate.