State budget clears first hurdle with Senate vote — but elected school board map hits possible stall until next year

Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, pinned some of the blame on prioritizing health care for undocumented persons.We’re investing in hospitals in red districts and in blue districts and health care workers across the state.” Legislators spent much of Thursday in caucuses — as House Democrats tried to resolve key issues, including discussions over health care funding for undocumented persons, the program to help fund private school scholarships, evidence-based school funding and money for district projects.About $550 million is included in the current budget measure for health care for the undocumented, which is part of a larger Medicaid appropriation through the Illinois Department of Human Services.

Another measure, part of the budget implementation bill, gives the department the ability to enact emergency rule-making to amend the process around funding such health care, which is not something the department currently has the capability of doing.But completion of a final map of the districts of Chicago’s new elected school board could be pushed even further into the future, as the House voted to give themselves months more time to draw it up.