Quinn scheduled to act on state spending plan - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn plans action on the state's budget plan.

The Democratic governor will have his say Saturday on a spending blueprint of about $33 billion that the General Assembly adopted in May.

It cuts education funding by $200 million and child-welfare spending by $85 million. But it finances prisons that Quinn had announced he wanted to close.

Quinn said last week he would proceed with closing prisons at Tamms and Dwight, and juvenile detention centers in Murphysboro and Joliet.

That would leave about $90 million unspent. Shifting most of it elsewhere requires lawmakers' approval.

Quinn has already signed legislation that saves more than $2 billion in Medicaid health care spending for the poor with $1.6 billion in cuts and millions more from a cigarette tax increase.

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