AG Asks Judge to Enjoin State from Spending Unappropriated Money

I suspect that I ought to take notice of the latest development in the slow-moving MVA that is the great State of Illinois. Reuters reports that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan (coincidentally the daughter of House Speaker Mike Madigan) has filed a motion to request that a judge lift a motion requiring that state employees continue to be paid, even in the absence of a budget authorizing the disbursement:

The attorney general of Illinois asked a judge on Thursday to lift an order requiring state workers to be paid during the state’s record 19-month budget impasse in hopes of putting pressure on lawmakers to pass a spending plan.

Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a Democrat, filed a motion in St. Clair County Circuit Court, requesting Judge Robert LeChien to dissolve his July 2015 order that authorized the state comptroller to pay wages of all Illinois employees despite the state not having a budget in place, court documents showed.

The order has “removed much of the urgency for the legislature and the governor to act on a budget,” Madigan said in a statement.

Since taking office in 2015, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner has feuded with the Democratic-led state legislature, leaving Illinois as the only U.S. state to go 19 months without a complete budget.

A bill package aimed at ending Illinois’ record-setting budget impasse and addressing the state’s deep fiscal woes will not be voted on in the Senate until the second week of February, the chamber’s leaders said on Thursday.

Note that the judge made his decision a year and a half ago, presumably under the misapprehension that the governor and legislature would do their jobs.

There’s been quite a bit of recrimination over AG Madigan’s motion. CapitolFax.com reproduces this letter from AFCSME Executive Director Roberta Lynch:

Dear [redacted],

Last night AFSCME’s attorney received official notification that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a motion yesterday in St. Clair County Circuit Court to dissolve the preliminary injunction that AFSCME secured nearly two years ago to ensure that state employees would continue to be paid despite the state’s budget standoff.

I want you to know that AFSCME is prepared to return to court in opposition to the Attorney General’s motion and to pursue every available legal means to halt her action. Other unions representing state employees were our partners in securing the original injunction and I’m confident they will stand with us now.

The Attorney General is justifying her action by citing the urgent need for a resolution of the state budget stalemate.

Of course, we all agree that such a resolution is long overdue. That’s why AFSCME has repeatedly called on Governor Rauner to end his insistence that enactment of a state budget must be tied to his personal political agenda which is aimed at weakening workers’ rights.

However, the need for a budget resolution can in no way justify the Attorney General’s harmful and irresponsible legal maneuver.

AG Madigan’s action is particularly objectionable coming as it does at a time when Governor Rauner has already been waging a relentless assault on state employees—seeking to impose his own contract terms that would drastically drive down employees’ incomes and weaken rights on the job.

Our union has said repeatedly that we do not want to see a shutdown of state government. We have done everything possible to avert a strike. But we are determined to resist the governor’s efforts to impose his terms—which would set us back for many years to come.

That’s why it is more critical than ever that union members vote “YES” to give your Bargaining Committee the authorization to call a strike if that becomes the only recourse to gain fair treatment and respect.

Today Governor Rauner will be claiming that he is a friend of state employees and wants to make sure you get paid. We know well what a bunch of baloney that is. After nearly two years of unremitting hostility toward state employees—doing everything possible to inflict damage to our working conditions and our economic security, there’s no way Bruce Rauner has decided to be our buddy now. Rather, his phony sympathy is nothing but an effort to protect his own position in the state budget battle.

You and your fellow state employees are on the job every day providing vital services that Illinois citizens depend on—often under difficult, even dangerous, conditions. It is deeply disturbing when it appears that our state’s political leaders see you as no more than pawns in their games—failing to respect or value the vital work that you do.

But we won’t be discouraged or beaten down. We have won so many battles standing together and fighting back—and we can win this one too!

In Unity,

Roberta Lynch
Executive Director

Echoing Talleyrand’s (or Metternich’s) remark on hearing of the death of the Turkish ambassador, I wonder what AG Madigan means by this motion? Is it her way of announcing she will not be a candidate for governor in 2018? Is it the result of a family spat? Does she think that her dad and the governor should grow up fercrissakes?

Everyone knows what should be done. Speaker Madigan should give a little; Governor Rauner should give a little; they should join hands and enact a budget. Instead they seem intent on glaring eyeball to eyeball at each other until 2018 (or Speaker Madigan’s and/or the state legislature’s approval rating drops to zero—both are in the teens now).

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  • Guarneri Link

    It was 75 and sunny down here today.

    Just sayin’.

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