Issue date: 4/27/09 Section: News

State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, speaks about political issues facing Illinois at the "Challenges for Illinois in a Time of Uncertainty" forum Friday afternoon in Buzzard Auditorium. (Erin Matheny / The Daily Eastern News)

The economy is the top challenge, said State Rep. Robert Flider, D-Mount Zion, at the forum titled "Challenges for Illinois in a Time of Uncertainty" Friday in the Buzzard Hall Auditorium.

Flider shared the stage with State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, whose main concerns with Illinois' economy revolved around the damage done by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Rose said after six years of Blagojevich, the cost of Medicare for the state has swelled from 23 percent to 37 percent, which he said would only increase if the state government did not address it.

Flider agreed with Rose and said one of the reasons for the increase in Medicare costs was that Blagojevich "didn't pay the bills on time." He said this made the state behind on giving money to nursing homes and doctors.

Flider said the money Illinois received from the federal government in the economic stimulus plan helped greatly in paying off the state's health care-related debts.

Rose said another problem with the state economy was the cost of health care-related programs like AllKids, the health care program for all uninsured children in the state.

He said a household making more than $250,000 a year still qualifies for the plan. Rose asked audience members to raise their hands if they thought a family making that much money could pay for their children's health care without the state's help. All in attendance raised their hands.

Flider said a lot of the issues from the rising cost of tuition had to do with the status of the local economy, which he said has been weakened by unemployment.

"The key is putting people to work so they can put money back into the system," he said.

A source mentioned for new local jobs was the Renewable Energy Center at Eastern, which both representatives were upbeat about.

"We worked our friggin' tails off on that thing," Rose said.

The capital bill to provide funding for the Renewable Energy Center was passed through the Illinois Senate with a 50-0 vote on Thursday and has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

"The entire fricking state of Illinois should be doing what EIU is doing," Rose said, referring to the economic and environmental benefits of the plant.

Flider said no capital bills were signed into law during the Blagojevich years, and now that he is gone, the state can be more active in fixing the economic problems.

Another building project Flider cited that was built as a result of a capital bill was Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Three other state politicians were scheduled to be part of the forum but had to cancel.

Richard Wandling, chair of the political science department, said even though the legislators' busy schedules were taken into consideration when planning began months ago, other obligations came up.


Doug T. Graham can be reached at 581-7942 or at dtgraham@eiu.edu.

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