The internal financial review completed Wednesday for the Illinois Primary Health Care Association found that, without help, the state’s federally established community health centers – which largely serve low-income and minority communities – face losses of $181 million and 4,350 layoffs during the next three months.

An executive order halting new prison admissions was issued Thursday by Gov. JB Pritzker as a total of 12 corrections staff and prisoners have tested positive for COVID19. The order will likely have the biggest impact on county jails, under the authority of sheriffs, where people are typically incarcerated prior to being admitted to the state prison system.

Pritzker did not directly answer a reporters’ question Thursday about how much the state has spent so far to battle the coronavirus.

The department also began tracking COVID019 related claims and is asking people to follow an alphabetized schedule when filing online and on the phone.

“At a time when my office could be assisting people who are concerned about how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact their mortgage, rent and student loan debt payments, my office is devoting significant resources to investigating individuals who are attempting to benefit from the public health crisis by putting profits before people,” Raoul said.

Many people who have tried to file for unemployment reported difficulties with the state’s unemployment website. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said state employees were working on it.

The analysts said they are watching what state and local governments do to manage the crisis. They said those that have reserves and strong liquidity will likely weather the storm while states with heavy debt liabilities will struggle.

Among other changes, the Republicans want to return the light trailer license fee back to $18 from before it was increased to $118, and a sales tax holiday for the entire duration of any work restrictions under the stay-at-home order.

Illinois is among the states not disclosing that key data.

The measure, which awaits final House action, would give Illinois state government $2.7 billion, while providing $2.2 billion to local governments, according to estimates from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Cook County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki said the measures will temporarily free up at least $30 million in cash flow for businesses during the public health crisis.

the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund is launching with nearly $23 million in initial donations. The United Way of Illinois and Alliance of Illinois Community Foundations are operating the new fund, separately and independently from the state.

Initial unemployment claims in Illinois for the week ending March 21 were 133,763, up 122,893 from the 10,870 claims filed the previous week, according to data released Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Labor and later updated by the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

Businesses will be able to apply for a share of $60 million in 5 year low-interest loans. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and Illinois’ official coronavirus response website are hosting the applications, and the program will be administered by nonprofit lender Accion.

The new report from the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability included a projection of state revenues and expenditures for the next three years under different scenarios. The report also highlighted threats to the state’s budget forecast, including it’s outstanding bill backlog of more than $8 billion, unfunded pension liabilities of more than $137 billion, and the uncertainty around what it called the “COVID-19 Recession.”

According to the Governor, there are 12,588 hospital beds available in Illinois with 51.6% occupied. Considering the Governor does not provide any detail as to what type of hospital beds he is pointing to, we will default to the data provided from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Board. According to HFSB reports, as of 2018, there are 36,174 Hospital beds in Illinois. That is over three times what the Governor reported. Even more interesting, the official report from the HFSB reflects more beds available than would be needed in the Governor’s worst-case scenario, 28,222.

The average from 1999 through 2019 was 11.2 executive orders per year. But in just the first three months of this year, Pritzker has already issued 12 executive orders, including 10 since he declared a public health disaster March 9. And some of the orders Pritzker has issued deal with multiple, unrelated issues.

Pritzker also announced two other programs to help small businesses, but those programs exclude Chicago businesses. However, the Chicago Small Business Resiliency Loan Fund is available for city businesses.

Pritzker said in an interview Tuesday with the Chicago Tribune that he isn’t spending much time looking backward at what he might have done differently but rather “course-correcting as we go.”

While the federal government is a government of enumerated powers – it can only exercise the powers specifically granted to it by the U.S. Constitution – state governments retain what is known as “police powers” to protect the welfare, safety and health of their residents, in keeping with the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The 880-page measure is the largest economic relief bill in U.S. history. The unanimous vote Wednesday came despite misgivings on both sides about whether it goes too far or not far enough and capped days of difficult negotiations.