Attorney General Madigan really needs to break her habit of releasing controversial opinions on Friday afternoons.
Anyway, Governor Blagojevich was hoping to sell the state’s student loan portfolio to generate millions for the MAP scholarship program. Madigan said today that the Illinois Student Assistance Commission has no authority to sell the portfolio without express premission from the General Assembly, effectively halting the sale. She also decreed that unless the legislature changes the law, the money from an asset sale must be placed in the student loan operating fund.
This isn’t the first time that Madigan has halted the governor’s planned sale of a state asset. She stopped the governor from selling the Thompson Center in the early days of his administration.
I haven’t seen any news articles yet, but you can read her entire opinion here. [pdf file]