Last summer, when the General Assembly and the Governor failed to agree on a budget for fiscal year 2016, starting on July 1, the State took the position that it had no authority to issue checks to Misericordia and other residential providers to individuals with developmental disabilities to cover the cost of providing services.

 However, in the Consent Decree in Ligas entered in 2011, the State agreed that it would fund all individuals living in ICF/DDs and in CILAs in the entire state for the life of the Decree. We were forced to go to court and obtain court orders requiring the State to fulfill its obligations under the Ligas Decree and provide the necessary funding.

At the time, no one anticipated that the entire fiscal year would pass without a state budget and that state government would again fail to agree on a budget for 2017. Therefore, the orders that were entered referred to payments to be made during fiscal year 2016. However, the primary order governing these payments says that “this Order shall remain in effect until the State enacts a budget for FY 2016 or until further order of this Court.” Since the State did not enact a budget for FY 2016 and there has been no further order of the Court, the correct reading of this language is that the Order remains in effect and the State must continue payments into FY 2017. Nonetheless, the State is taking the position that a new order must be entered in order for payments to continue. The saving grace is that the State has indicated that it is willing to enter into an agreed order continuing the payments.

While we disagree with the State’s view that a new order is necessary, there is no reason to contest this view as long as the State is willing to enter an agreed order. Therefore, Bill Choslovsky and I will be working with the Plaintiffs in Ligas on a proposed agreed order for the State to consider. We are hopeful that the Plaintiffs, Intervenors and the State can all agree on the language of an agreed order and have it entered by the Court before the July 1 beginning of the new fiscal year, to ensure that there are no gaps in payments to Misericordia and other providers. In the unlikely event that we fail to reach an agreement with the State on the language of an order, we will file a motion before Judge Coleman asking that a new order be entered.

And, just maybe, someday, the State of Illinois will have a budget so that payments can be made without the need for lawyers to be involved.

Scott