Sept. 01--A federal judge decided not to hold the state of Illinois in contempt of court Tuesday after attorneys representing Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration and the comptroller's office said they were working to process payments to providers who care for the disabled despite missing a court-ordered deadline.
The legal dispute between the state and advocates for the disabled came about after Comptroller Leslie Munger missed an Aug. 21 due date for payments to providers, whose services are covered under a federal consent decree and are required to be paid even in the absence of a state budget.
Advocates for the disabled asked U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman to find the state in contempt of court, sparking an emergency hearing last week where the judge demanded an accounting from the state of what had and had not been paid. Aides in the Rauner administration and comptroller's office submitted affidavits explaining that the state faces a serious cash flow problem because it is spending more than it takes in. The filings also asserted that payments for the disabled are being processed and paid while the state operates without a budget, but that the cash crunch makes it impossible to meet firm deadlines.
On Tuesday, Coleman scolded the state for previously failing "to explain the difficulty they were having in a timely way," saying the legal wrangling over the payments "cost a lot of time, effort, trees."
Coleman said she was satisfied that "every attempt has been made to try to cooperate," and instructed the two sides to draft an order that would allow a court monitor to keep track of the payments to make sure the state complies with her order.
kgeiger@tribpub.com
Twitter @kimgeiger
