One of Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s primary responsibilities is to pay the state’s bills. Given that duty, she has made it a priority to reach out to nonprofit agency vendors across the state to ensure that they do not slash services or shut their doors altogether due to state payment delays.

Topinka knows that the nonprofit sector provides essential services to folks who need them the most, including seniors, children and those with disabilities.

As the state’s bill backlog stacks up, Topinka’s staff prioritizes what must be paid statutorily and under specific time constraints.  She has instructed staff to make nonprofit payments one of the top priorities.

Read more about the Comptroller's Program
Illinois has Heart flyer
Illinois Nonprofit Advisory Council

Beyond destroying homes and killing two people, the Nov. 17 tornado that ripped through Washington scattered bits of family history across the state.

Papers and photos have been found 150 miles away in the Chicago suburbs.

Ground zero for the return of photos, documents and small mementos is a cramped room at the Morton Public Library. Volunteers there are numbering items, noting where they were found and preserving them in hopes they will be recovered.

More than 1,000 items have been cataloged, and there's an equal number awaiting review.
Military records, marriage licenses, birth certificates, photo albums, canceled checks, report cards, love letters, address books and baseball cards are among the items being cataloged at the library.

Photos of items that do not contain sensitive information are being posted on two Facebook pages.
Those pages, titled "Found Items from the Washington Illinois and Diamond Illinois Tornadoes" and "Photos found from Nov. 17, 2013 Illinois Storms/Tornadoes" have thousands of followers.

Volunteers and library staff members also are trying to connect items with owners by writing letters and doing Internet research. Items began coming into the library a few days after the tornado struck, and the flow has continued, especially after group searches have been done.

Read more By Steve Stein of the Journal Star.

Disaster SNAP applications available starting Wednesday, December 11

The Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) will offer immediate food assistance to 15 counties beginning Wednesday, December 11. The USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services has authorized IDHS to offer special Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to residents in those counties declared federal disaster areas as a result of severe storms last month.

Pensions 
General Assembly enacts, Governor signs landmark pension reform bill.  SB 1, as amended by conference committee, is expected to reduce future actuarial expenses to State taxpayers by $160 billion.  These savings are subject to many future events, including the outcome of litigation to determine the constitutionality of the new law.  In addition “Tier 1” public-sector employees affected by the policy changes enacted under this statute may change their retirement plans to increase or decrease the savings the State will enjoy under this bill.   The bipartisan House vote on Tuesday, December 3, was 62-53-1.  The Senate vote of 30-24-3 sent the measure to the Governor for his signature.  The Governor signed the bill on Thursday, December 5.

In preparation for their Christmas shopping consumers are making their lists and checking them twice but before the buying begins they need to be aware of the scams that could ruin an otherwise joyous occasion. The Better Business Bureau, serving Chicago and Northern Illinois, offers a "Christmas Top 10" list that consumers need to check.

“Vigilance is the word,” said Steve J. Bernas, president andCEO of the Better Business Bureau serving Chicago and Northern Illinois.“Whether you’re making a donation, shopping online or in stores, scammers are on the lookout for you and you should do the same for them. Keep, your eyes and ears open.”

What should consumers look for this holiday season? Read more in the Geneva Patch.

A bill to revamp Illinois’ underfunded pension system passed the House 62-53 and the Senate 30-24 today, sending the bill to Governor Quinn, who has said he will sign it.

The legislation was drafted by a 10-member conference committee made up of members of both parties and both houses. A conference committee is a rarely-invoked process which the General Assembly uses when the two houses each pass different bills on the same topic and cannot reconcile the differences. Different House and Senate pension bills passed in May. When the two houses deadlocked over the two bills, each chamber voted to create a conference committee, and the four legislative caucuses appointed its members.

Rep. Patti Bellock believe Maximus
is doing exactly what lawmakers
hired them do to and questions
the need to cancel their work.

A private contractor hired by Illinois has excelled in removing from the state's Medicaid rolls people who didn't qualify for the benefit. The contractor, Virginia-based Maximus Health Services Inc., has recommended over the course of the year that the state scrub about 190,000 people from the Medicaid rolls. That saves money and helps to preserve the vital health coverage for lower-income residents.

Maximus' reward? Its caseworkers may be fired, its responsibilities scaled back.

Why? Because AFSCME, the state employees union, convinced an arbitrator this year that the state couldn't legally hire Maximus to do the job. The work should have been done by the state's union workforce, arbitrator Edwin Benn ruled. He set a Dec. 31 deadline for the state to fire Maximus and use state workers. Read the entire Chicago Tribune Editorial.

Other stories on the issue:

Despite ‘staggering’ success, Illinois drops Medicaid fraud finder

Bellock urges public hearing to discuss future of Medicaid program