Sixty one social service agencies suing the State of Illinois over the budget impasse got their day in court today. Providers of addiction treatment and rape counseling sued the state for payment. A Cook County judge ruled they don’t have to be paid if there is no budget. So those groups appealed.
Today - an attorney for the social services - Tom Geoghegan - told Illinois Appellate Court judges these agencies are political hostages. He asked why the state would enter contracts with these organizations knowing there wouldn’t be a budget to pay for those contracts.
An attorney for the state argued that if there is no budget, the contracts say the state doesn’t have to pay - and says the social services are trying to spin straw into gold.
