Comptroller takes immediate action to alleviate hardship.

Illinois State Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger issued the following statement Thursday regarding student Monetary Award Program (MAP) grants:

"Today, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission sent $164 million in MAP Grant vouchers to my office and we turned around the payments immediately. As a result, colleges and universities will receive payment to assist the 125,000 college students who rely upon that funding to further their education. Our students have suffered unacceptable hardship due to this budget impasse and it is my priority to provide relief however possible.

But this is not a long term solution. In fact, the MAP Grant funding that was signed into law earlier this week covers only half of what students were promised this year. I applaud the General Assembly and Governor for a strong first step, but it is critical that they now finish the job and pass a comprehensive balanced budget that allows us to keep our promises not only to students, but also to social service providers, schools, businesses and others that are serving taxpayers across our state."

Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger on Monday said legislation passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor will allow her office to swiftly process payments for local governments, 911 emergency phone services, Lottery winners and domestic violence shelters.

Approved by the House last week, SB2039 unanimously passed the Senate Monday, and was signed by Governor Bruce Rauner.

Comptroller, DHS agree EI services fall under active consent decree 

Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger announced Wednesday that her office is setting up accounts and will immediately begin making payments to Early Intervention providers as soon as it receives vouchers from the Department of Human Services (DHS).

Munger learned from her Nonprofit Advisory Council last week that Early Intervention services were "slipping through the cracks" of consent decrees requiring payments during the budget impasse, and she contacted DHS officials to discuss what payment options were available. After looking more closely at several active consent decrees, DHS and the Comptroller agreed that Early Intervention services were covered and they immediately began setting up the processes for making payments to providers.

9-11 Observances
State observes anniversary of 9-11, honors victims and first responders. In Illinois by order of Gov. Rauner, flags flew at half-mast throughout Patriot Day in honor of the victims and heroes of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and rural Pennsylvania.

Leading the way towards observance of the somber day of remembrance were Republican members of the University of Illinois student and teaching community, who successfully advocated for permission to set up a memorial installation on the U of I Quad. After a facet of the university administration temporarily attempted to block organization of the installation, the Illini Republicans led the way in a successful push to reverse the prohibition and allow the placement of 2,977 flags on the Quad. Each U.S. flag will represent one victim of the atrocity.

Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger announced Wednesday that if the state continues its current rate of spending without a balanced budget, Illinois' backlog of unpaid bills to schools, hospitals, businesses, social services and other vendors will exceed $8.5 billion by the end of the calendar year.

Munger said court orders, consent decrees, and statutory continuing appropriations (including debt service, pension payments, tax refunds and lawmaker salaries) are funding 90 percent of the state's bills even though the General Assembly and Governor have been deadlocked on a budget since July 1.  The problem is, the spending is based on FY 15 levels while revenue is based on FY 16 levels, which is running considerably lower due to the sunset of the temporary tax increase in January.

Comptroller committed to paying most vulnerable

Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger released the following statement Tuesday in response to a Federal Court's denial of a motion to hold the state in contempt of court over payments tied to the Ligas Consent Decree impacting services for people with developmental disabilities:

"I am grateful to the Court for recognizing that our office has done, and will continue to do, everything in its power to ensure that the state's budget shortfall does not impact payment for services for people with developmental disabilities.

State employees should be paid in full while a budget impasse plays out at the Capitol, a downstate judge ruled Thursday.

The decision in St. Clair County, near St. Louis, contradicts a Tuesday ruling in Cook County, where a judge denied Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger’s request to continue paying workers in full despite the absence of a budget.

Following the downstate ruling Thursday, Munger’s office issued a statement saying she was moving forward with processing payroll for checks due to go out July 15.

“While there will most certainly be additional legal action, I am confident that the court will ultimately determine that paying state employees for their work is the right, and legal, thing to do,” Munger said in a statement. Read the entire story in the Chicago Tribune.

Illinois will stiff its workers, stop paying Medicaid and end school aid if lawmakers don’t pass a budget in the next three weeks, Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said.

The lack of a spending plan for the year starting July 1 is increasing pressure on Illinois’s already stressed finances, Munger said in a press conference in Chicago on Wednesday.

The Democrat-controlled legislature and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner failed to agree before the session ended May 31 on how to close a $6.2 billion budget gap for the coming fiscal year. A solution now requires a three-fifths vote rather than a simple majority. The standoff has intensified the financial crisis and heightened the risk of credit downgrades. Bloomberg Business has the story.

Governor Bruce Rauner and Lt. Gov. Evelyn Sanguinetti 
Rauner takes oath of office; freezes nonessential State spending.  As he launched into his duties as Governor of Illinois, Bruce Rauner issued a series of executive orders to freeze all nonessential State spending, including spending on infrastructure projects.  Announcing that he will serve without pay, the new Governor announced he would impose a new code of ethics on himself and his office as part of a dramatic shift in the State political culture.

Comptroller – appointment
Leslie Geissler Munger’s appointment announced by Bruce Rauner.  A Chicago business executive, Munger will be named by Governor-elect Bruce Rauner to serve as Comptroller, filling the vacant office left behind by the late elected Comptroller Judy Barr Topinka. Governor-Elect Rauner announced the pending appointment on Monday.