Judge Rules No Full Pay for Illinois Workers Without State Budget

Judge rules no full pay for Illinois workers without state budget [Video]

July 8, 2015

ABC 7 Chicago - A Cook County Judge ruled Tuesday that Illinois cannot keep paying state workers their full paychecks during the budget stalemate between Governor Bruce Rauner and state lawmakers.

The Governor has said he wants state workers paid in full, even without an approved budget. Lawyers for the Attorney General's office say that while they're sympathetic to that idea, the constitution won't allow it.

Tuesday's court decision means that state workers, while they are expected to keep coming to work, will not be getting their full pay as long as the budget battle continues. Many will be paid a federally required minimum wage rate of $7.25 per hour.

That's not good news for Ebony Murray who has a daughter in college.

"She's about to go back to school in another month," Murray says. "I have to pay for books and fees and things like that and I really don't know how I'm gonna do that."

State Comptroller Leslie Munger had argued that Illinois' accounting systems are so antiquated, it's impossible to figure out who should be paid the federal minimum, so the state should pay everyone full freight until there's a new budget. The judge essentially said the constitution shouldn't suffer just because the state hasn't taken time to update is payroll practices.


Munger says she's appealing the ruling, as are state employee unions like SEIU which has 20,000 state paid personal assistants responsible for in-home care.

"This ruling destabilizes also that work force, living from day to day to day uncertain if you're going to get paid full wage or no wage," SEIU spokesman James Muhammed says.

"Of course Attorney General Madigan and our office want state employees paid but we also want to make it's done in a constitutionally and legally appropriate manner. So not only state employees get paid but also we're funding full government services," said Natalie Bauer, a spokesperson for Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

In the midst of uncertainty, state workers remain on the job. In the Secretary of State's office, it's business as usual.

"Our plans are to stay open and the employees have been very good, as they were in the past in a similar situation, about being here and working," says Dave Druker, Secretary of State spokesman.

Ebony Murray says she'll keep coming to work, but she has some words for the budgeteers.

"We have to get paid eventually," she says. "We have families to take care of as they do, so come on now, think about the small people, the little people that's keeping government running and working."

State legislators return to budget debates on Wednesday, and there will again be efforts to pass a one-month budget. The governor is opposed to that, but would support the idea of paying state workers in full for the fiscal year with or without a budget. But even if that comes up, it too would face the same constitutional challenge.