Ahead of a busy week in Springfield, Gov. Pat Quinn marched Monday in the Park Ridge Memorial Day Parade and headed off to Wrigley Field to continue honoring veterans.
From there he goes to the state capital to try and convince lawmakers they must find a way to reform both Medicaid and the state pension system.
The process started Thursday when Illinois lawmakers agreed to fulfill one of the governor's requests to fix Medicaid. The House voted to cut $1.6 billion from the program, putting thousands of Illinois poor in jeopardy of losing health coverage.
Will legislators give Quinn the rest of what he wants? That's a question he wants answered as soon as possible.
Quinn last month proposed raising the state retirement age to help fix staggering pension problems in the state. On Friday Speaker of the Illinois House Michael Madigan claimed it would be unconstitutional to force current state employees to work to age 67 before collecting full retirement benefits.
During Monday's parade, Quinn pointed to renewed talks of expanding gambling in the state as a distraction for lawmakers.
