Last spring, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) advanced legislation that captured $900 million in new federal aid for hospitals and health care services. Although Illinois had received approval by federal regulators for its five-year, $4.5 billion hospital assessment plan authored by Schoenberg and House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) in May, 2008, the State’s financial problems created an eight-month delay for hospitals waiting to receive the anticipated Medicaid funding.
 
Schoenberg, who is one of the General Assembly’s leading experts on health care funding and state finance, said House Bill 1027 authorizes short-term borrowing where the state effectively lends itself $510 million from two dedicated special state funds in order to make the State current with its health care bills. By rectifying its accounts, the State is in turn able to leverage an additional $515.5 million in matching federal Medicaid funds.
 
The state had until March 14, 2009, under the hospital assessment law to begin making its Fiscal Year 2009 monthly payments dating back to July of 2008. Failure to do so would have resulted in the state forfeiting its eligibility for the multi-billion-dollar federal funding program.
 
Eliminating inefficient government spending has been a top priority for Assistant Majority Leader Jeff Schoenberg from the beginning of his legislative tenure. He is the Senate’s leading expert on contracting issues and through his legislative efforts to make government more efficient, he has saved the State of Illinois millions of dollars over the past two decades. Schoenberg has also tackled the corruption investigations surrounding the Illinois Toll Highway Authority. He has enacted strict procurement oversight and regulations to ensure these abuses do not occur in the future.
 
Schoenberg started his accomplished career in state politics when he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1989. Since that time, Schoenberg has established himself as one of the State’s most distinguished legislators. Senator Schoenberg lives in Evanston with his wife and their two children.