 Attorneys representing people with developmental disabilities on Tuesday filed
an emergency motion. They are asking U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman
to bring into her courtroom the state’s comptroller, Healthcare and Family
Services director and Department of Human Services director to explain why the
state has not made payments ordered by the court and why the state officials
should not be held in civil contempt of court.
The motion is scheduled to be heard at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 26.
“The consent decree and Judge Coleman’s two orders make clear that payment for
people with developmental disabilities must be paid,” Barry Taylor, the
plaintiffs’ lead attorney, said in a written statement.
The state, Taylor said, “will have to explain to the judge why payments have not
been made.”
Rich Carter, spokesman for Comptroller Leslie Munger, R-Lincolnshire, said the
comptroller’s office is ready to explain its actions to the court, but the short
story is that the cash-strapped state is doing everything it can to meet its
obligations. The state did make $71 million of applicable emergency payments on
Tuesday, he said.
After hearing motions earlier this summer, Coleman on Aug. 18 entered an order
saying the state was not meeting its obligations under the Ligas Consent Decree,
which arose from a lawsuit against the state on behalf of people with
developmental disabilities.
In that order, Coleman compelled the state to make payments at funding levels of
no less than in fiscal year 2015.
For claims already submitted, the state had until Friday to pay. For other
services provided in August, the state has until Sept. 4 to pay. By Sept. 18,
the state must be in full compliance.
The plaintiffs’ argue the need is dire and more than 10,000 people are at risk.
In their emergency motion, they say many of the service providers are
“completely dependent upon the funding of the state in order to remain in
operation. If the state does not timely make the payments required by federal
law and the orders entered in this case, numerous providers will immediately
close their doors, and thousands of individuals with developmental disabilities
will not receive services that are essential to their survival.”
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 Carter said the state, which is currently
without a budget for most of its operations, is running against a
multi-billion-dollar backlog as it attempts to meet all of its
obligations, including consent decrees and court orders.
And, he said, the money is moving out at an unsustainable clip.
By one projection, compiled by Illinois Senate Democrats, the state
is spending at a pace that will exceed the current budget year’s
estimated income by $5 billion.
The Ligas Consent Decree, Carter said, is a little different than
others the state is attempting to comply with in that it has a
timeline for payments, “but we are doing everything we can as soon
as possible.”
“We are prioritizing all payments to the best of our ability, with
precedence being given to those serving our elderly, children and
most vulnerable,” Carter said.
The Ligas lawsuit, named for the principal plaintiff, Stanley Ligas,
was filed against the director of the state’s Department of Human
Services in 2005 by nine people with developmental disabilities who
resided in large, private, state-funded facilities or who were
likely to be placed in such facilities. The plaintiffs had, without
success, sought community-based services.
The decree eventually issued helped bring Illinois in line with the
Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires people with
disabilities be allowed to live in the “most integrated setting”
possible.
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative Democrats, who hold
supermajorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, have been
unable to come to an agreement on a fiscal year 2016 budget. The
state is now nearly 60 days into its fiscal year with the only
significant portion of its budget approved being that for primary
and secondary education.
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