Eye On Illinois: Lack of urgency apparent in wake of hospital closure

Few would disagree there are more efficient ways to do the people’s business in Illinois. Finding common ground on practical, impactful solutions is a harder target.

Consider state Rep. Mike Coffey, R-Springfield, who according to WMAY-FM, told constituents on a telephone town hall he’ll introduce a bill making it impossible for the General Assembly to take final votes on matters between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.

Coffey is new to the Legislature – appointed Jan. 11 as replacement for the retiring Tim Butler – but a lifelong resident of the capital city. He knows well this year’s holiday weekend midnight budget votes were no exception to Statehouse standards.

Although he’s correct most people the budget affects are usually sound asleep at the final tally, pragmatism means acknowledging that shifting the vote ahead a dozen hours wouldn’t enable that much more of the state’s population to be in personal attendance, nor would it shed any additional light on the negotiations that yield multibillion-dollar spending plans.

To hear rank-and-file lawmakers tell it, especially Republicans, they barely know what’s in the budget before leading Democrats announce a deal each spring. Adding clarity to the building-block process would be far more meaningful. As such, Coffey’s other suggestion is much more powerful: subjecting the General Assembly to the same Open Meetings Act obligations it imposes on every other taxpayer-funded body.

To hear rank-and-file lawmakers tell it, especially Republicans, they barely know what’s in the budget before leading Democrats announce a deal each spring. Adding clarity to the building-block process would be far more meaningful.”

—  Scott T. Holland

Those regulations are important. They speak to the importance of elected and appointed officials meeting in person as routinely as possible, a reality that somewhat explains why lawmakers every year take meaningful votes at odd hours: It’s just not easy to get everyone to Springfield on a 9-to-5 schedule.

Yet despite a strong, justifiable anti-Zoom preference, we shouldn’t let distance and time stand in the way of delivering solutions in critical moments. Such is the case in Spring Valley, where St. Margaret’s Hospital closed for good over the weekend, leaving thousands of people too far from an emergency room and many everyday medical offices shuttered.

OSF HealthCare filed the paperwork to fully, formally acquire the Peru hospital St. Margaret’s had already closed … and the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board won’t consider the request until Aug. 15. Even setting aside the employment concerns – 84 openings posted for 500 displaced workers – the medical access issues surely warrant some extra effort.

When lawmakers want to act in short order, they find a way.

But with this hospital closure apparently eight weeks is enough? Budgets and criminal justice reforms and gun control bills don’t just materialize form thin air, but neither did the end of St. Margaret’s. State government isn’t solely responsible for the problems rural hospitals face, but neither does it appear to be working toward even stopgap solutions.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Media. Follow him on Twitter @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.