McHenry Times

State Rep. Dan Ugaste (R-Geneva) has a laundry list of reasons for why he thinks Democrats are now moving to make Illinois the first to provide Medicaid to undocumented immigrants is bad policy.

“It starts with this new budget being $6 billion out of balance, already owing money to vendors everywhere and knowing that there will already be a decrease in revenues generated because of COVID-19,” Ugaste told the Kane County Reporter. “Given that, I can’t see how we would be considering undertaking a new program like this. We can’t meet the ones we have. To be taking on something like this with no cuts to the budget makes no sense.”

A provision in the state’s newly passed $42 billion budget plan paves the way for all undocumented immigrants over the age of 65 with incomes of $12,670 or less to be eligible for Medicaid benefits as of July 1, 2021.

“If you’re going to fund a new program, you have to find the revenue for it,” Ugaste added. “On top of everything else, we already owe well over $100 billion for pensions alone. I’m not saying you can’t come up with anything else to put forward, but at this point it just seems fiscally irresponsible.”

Ugaste has long railed against the state’s lack of urgency in dealing with the state’s ongoing pension crisis, speaking out about the findings in a recent Tax Foundation report that ranked Illinois almost last in the country for funded ratio of pubic pensions.

“Something has to be done and until that happens we will not get businesses coming in to grow the economy or improve the tax base because no one wants the uncertainty,” he previously told the Kane County Reporter. “We need fair and equitable policy to have any chance of attracting new business.”

Based on fiscal-year analysis from 2017, researchers found Illinois’ public pensions are funded at just 38 percent to rank No. 48 in the country, ahead of only New Jersey and Kentucky.