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SPRINGFIELD Both parties agreed Friday that the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak that left 36 residents dead at the LaSalle Veterans Home was a mess but they disagreed sharply on who was to blame.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration again pointed at former state Veterans Affairs Director Linda Chapa LaVia, contending she misled them into thinking she was adequately addressing the problems.
But Republicans lay the blame squarely at the feet of the Democratic governor, arguing the failure to take swift action as the crisis unfolded and the attempts to pass the buck indicated “a failure of leadership” at the top.
SPRINGFIELD â Illinois budget officials said Thursday that revenues are flowing into state coffers at a faster pace than previously estimated, meaning lawmakers will have more money to work with as they try to finalize a new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The Governorâs Office of Management and Budget officially raised its revenue estimate for the current fiscal year by more than $1.4 billion and by $842 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
Those figures are similar to the latest revised estimates from the General Assemblyâs budget monitoring agency, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, which said last week that revenues for the current year would go up about $2 billion while next yearâs revenues would be $792 million more than previously forecasted.
AP News Minute: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is easing indoor mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people, allowing them to safely stop wearing masks in most places. President Joe Biden is warning gas stations not to engage in price gouging as motorists wait for fuel to start flowing again through the Colonial Pipeline.
Illinoisâ public health director and Gov. J.B. Pritzkerâs deputy in charge of health care said Thursday they were misled by top state veterans affairs officials when told COVID-19 procedures were being followed that could have slowed or prevented a deadly outbreak at the LaSalle Veterans Home in November.
In the months before the state-run veterans’ home in LaSalle saw a massive COVID-19 outbreak that eventually killed more than a quarter of the facility’s