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U.S. District
Court Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said she was "very
disappointed" the state failed to meet an Aug. 21 payment
deadline she set in her Aug. 18 order and did not communicate
that failure to the court.
"You have to make contact with the court or else you are in
contempt of the court order," the judge told attorneys for
Illinois' comptroller and two state agency heads.
An impasse between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and
Democrats who control the House and Senate over a spending plan
for the fiscal year that began July 1 ignited a rush to court to
seek payment orders. State and federal courts have ordered state
money to continue to flow for human services covered under
existing consent decrees and for state payroll.
Services for more than 10,000 disabled residents were covered
under a 2011 consent decree.
Attorneys for disabled residents on Tuesday asked the judge to
find the state officials in civil contempt of court. But Coleman
requested a detailed accounting of the state's bill payments
instead.
"Human lives are at stake," the judge said, while acknowledging
the existence of other court orders competing for state funds.
John Stevens, a lawyer for Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger,
said after payments were made on Aug. 21 for debt service on
bonds and for pensions, the state lacked money to pay all of its
bills.
Benjamin Wolf, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney
representing the disabled, told reporters after the hearing that
some clients were about to be thrown out in the street due to
the lack of state payments.
(Reporting by Karen Pierog; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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