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Blagojevich defends constitutionality of his plan

Posted August 15, 2007 11:00 pm

Adriana Colindres, Doug Finke and Bernard Schoenburg

A day after announcing he would bypass the legislature and enact a plan to expand Illinois' health-care coverage, Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday defended the move, calling it "as constitutional as it gets."

Blagojevich said his intended action is "another option that's available to achieve the same result, and that is to increase access to affordable quality health care."

"If the legislature refuses to do it, if they want to pass budgets that are filled with pork and want to shortchange health care, if that's what they choose to do, there's nothing I can do to stop them," he said. "But I can use the legal authority the governor has to expand health care the way I'm doing it."

Some of the governor's fellow Democrats aren't so sure he is acting within the limits of the Illinois Constitution.

"In a best-case scenario, he is going to expand our Medicaid deficit by $500 million," said Comptroller Dan Hynes. "In a worst-case scenario, he is defying the Constitution."

Blagojevich said Tuesday he would use his "executive authority" to expand existing health-care programs to cover an additional 717,000 Illinoisans. The cost would be $463 million.

At the same time, Blagojevich said he would use his veto powers to slash $500 million from the $59 billion budget lawmakers have sent him. That $500 million figure is to include $200 million worth of what the governor calls "pork" and $300 million of "special interest spending" that he has not specifically identified yet.

House Speaker Michael Madigan, who offered his first public reaction Wednesday to the governor's announcement, said Blagojevich's plan to "spend money where he does not have spending authority just is contrary to the Constitution."

Senate President Emil Jones stood beside the governor as he made the announcement Tuesday at the state Capitol. Jones said he would support Blagojevich's plan by refusing to let the Senate vote on overriding a gubernatorial veto of the budget bill lawmakers sent him Monday.

The House and Senate both must vote to override a veto.

Madigan, D-Chicago, said he still would seek an override of Blagojevich's veto in the Democrat-controlled House. A veto override was part of the budget agreement the four legislative leaders, including himself and Jones, recently reached, Madigan said.

But Jones, who is also a Chicago Democrat, accused Madigan and Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson of "a collusion" to breach the leaders' agreement by derailing a capital bill for state construction projects. The bill failed last week in the Senate.

"So that's why I changed my mind. That's a fact," Jones said Wednesday. "(Madigan) should not have interfered in what we were doing on capital."

Madigan said Jones' assertions are untrue.

Democrats did not directly address their legislative spat at an afternoon rally at the Illinois State Fair, where Wednesday was "Governor's Day." Hynes and Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the speaker's daughter, skipped the afternoon event, though they appeared at another Democratic gathering Wednesday morning.

Michael Madigan, the state party chairman, used his rally speech to tout the presidential candidacy of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, an Illinois Democrat who formerly served in the General Assembly.

"Our day here in Springfield should belong to Barack Obama," said Madigan, who was greeted with some boos after Jones introduced him to the crowd.

When Madigan finished, some of the same people - who declined to identify themselves - started to chant, "Veto Madigan."

Eddie Read, chairman of an advocacy umbrella group called Chicago Black United Communities, later said there were "various entities from the grass-roots community" who brought visitors to the Springfield rally.

"I heard the boos," Read said. "I was surprised to hear them on a unity day, but quite frankly, I was comforted when I heard them."

While he didn't directly see anyone booing, Read said people associated with his umbrella group could have been involved. But he stressed that the governor was not involved in bringing people to the rally, and he believes any booing would have been spontaneous.

"If a person started booing, I'm sure some of our people would boo," he said. "We find what Speaker Madigan is doing is not in the best interests of impoverished and indigent people across this state. People are hurting. They need health care."

Blagojevich focused on that theme at the rally, saying Democrats have the political muscle in Illinois to provide health care to people who don't have it.

"The people didn't elect us because our speeches sounded good. The people elected us because of the things we said in our speeches," he said from a stage decorated with a banner that said: "Democratic Party Stands for Health Care."

"Now, this ain't hard," he added. "We can do it. The Democrats control this process here."

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, said Illinois Democrats eventually would get past their intraparty squabbling.

"I believe that, just like within any family, you call each other names at home, but nobody better attack my family in public," he said. "We will come through this as a party."

Adriana Colindres can be reached at 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com. Doug Finke can be reached at 788-1527 or doug.finke@sj-r.com. Bernard Schoenburg can be reached at 788-1540 or bernard.schoenburg@sj-r.com.

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