A top aide to the Illinois treasurer said Thursday it was “unlikely” that the state’s cash balance was so low last week that the comptroller couldn’t follow a federal judge’s order to pay for services for the developmentally disabled.
The treasurer’s office pointed to daily balance sheets showing the state began the day on Friday with more than $217 million and ended it with more than $57 million on hand. The treasurer’s office also questioned whether Comptroller Leslie Munger only wrote checks to vendors whom she had to pay.
“Is it possible that the comptroller last Friday only paid those bills that are under some court order? It’s certainly unlikely. It’s especially unlikely given that they ended the day with $57 million,” said Greg Rivara, spokesman to Treasurer Mike Frerichs. “They certainly could have at least paid some of those individuals on Friday, and she chose not to.”
The new dispute between the state’s top two fiscal officers pits a Democrat, Mike Frerichs, against Republican Gov. Rauner’s hand-picked comptroller. The remarks come after the comptroller failed to comply with a court order that required the state to make certain back-payments by last Friday to cover services for the severely developmentally disabled.
Munger dismissed the opinion from Frerichs’ office as ridiculous.
“I wish he had contacted us before making such an absurd statement. To look at a balance and say there’s plenty of cash is as ridiculous as looking at my bank account after I’m paid and thinking I have money to burn,” said comptroller spokesman Rich Carter. “That might be true if I didn’t have a mortgage to pay, a car payment to make and kids to put through school. Similarly, the balance in the state’s checkbook has fluctuations as we accrue funds for the larger payments we’re obligated to make. ”
Munger’s office said it prioritizes payments to ensure that organizations serving elderly, children and the state’s “most vulnerable residents” are paid first. The office said it didn’t receive the vouchers needed to make the payment from the Department of Human Services until Friday — the same day payment was due.
However, when U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ordered Munger’s office to make a round of payments by Aug. 21, she had already expressed frustration with the comptroller’s office.
Munger had told the court that if the state did not have a budget by July 1, the office would not pay for services of developmentally disabled adults who were protected under a court consent decree unless the judge ordered her to do so. In July, Coleman told Munger that she was compelled to make payments to fund services for the developmentally disabled with or without a legal budget in place.
In her ruling last week, Coleman said the comptroller’s office had already violated a court consent decree and the subsequent court order.
When the Chicago Sun-Times asked Munger’s office on Monday why the office hadn’t complied with a court order, a spokesman cited a “severe cash shortage,” due, in part, to the sunsetting of an income tax increase earlier in 2015. The next day, the office made a $71 million payment but owed roughly another $40 million.
On Thursday, Frerich’s office then lay some of the blame for a “cash shortage” on Rauner.
“The comptroller’s office said money is tight because the tax increase was allowed to expire. The tax increase was allowed to expire because the governor asked that it expire,” Rivara said. “If the comptroller’s position is that there is a cash shortage, certainly, part of that is tied to the governor.”
Rauner has said in the past that the Democratic-controlled General Assembly had given him an unbalanced budget, but Democrats could have authorized a tax increase on their own.
By noon Friday, Munger’s office must provide Coleman with a detailed list of vendors Munger paid before the parties falling under Coleman’s order.
