Amid the focus in Springfield yesterday on pensions, the General Assembly passed its entire budget for fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1. The package delivered an expected rebuke of Gov. Pat Quinn’s plan to close multiple state facilities.
The Tamms supermax prison, a women’s prison in Dwight, the mental health center in Tinley Park, and developmentally disabled centers in Jacksonville and Centralia all received funding to stay open, along with smaller state facilities Quinn wants closed.
However, the governor may opt to close the mental health and developmentally disabled centers, and Tamms will no longer be a supermax facility. Read more »
The Illinois spring legislative session ended last night, meaning state lawmakers will meet just once again the rest of the year, for a brief fall veto session, though Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to convene lawmakers this summer to pass pension legislation.
A proposal by Gov. Pat Quinn to close multiple state facilities – including prisons and also centers for the mentally ill and developmentally disabled – could unravel. 
The Illinois Senate this afternoon narrowly passed a 
This is typically the busiest month for the Illinois General Assembly – state lawmakers stay in Springfield each week to agree upon an annual budget by May 31 and act on other major bills. This year, again the focus is on the state budget – and the related problems of underfunded 