Daily Egyptian THURSDAY, JULY 9, 2015
Judge: No state budget, no full pay for Illinois workers
DAILYEGYPTIAN.COM
SINCE 1916
VOL. 99 ISSUE 71
Testing the waters
Kim GeiGer | Chicago Tribune State employees cannot be paid more than federal minimum wage until lawmakers and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner agree on a spending plan, a Cook County judge ruled Tuesday. The decision dealt a blow to the Republican governor’s pledge to keep workers paid in full while a broader political battle over the state budget and the governor’s probusiness, anti-union agenda plays out at the Capitol. Attorneys representing the Illinois comptroller’s office said they intend to appeal the decision. The state, however, can continue spending money that isn’t subject to appropriation by the legislature, can keep issuing checks for expenses written into law and can continue to pay for the operations of the judicial branch, the judge ruled. The ruling came as Illinois prepares to enter a second week without a budget for the financial year that began July 1. After he vetoed much of the budget lawmakers sent to him, Rauner last week ordered state employees to continue reporting to work on their regular schedules and insisted the state had the authority to keep paying them in full. That view was challenged by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who sought clarity from the court. Madigan is the daughter of Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, who is feuding with Rauner. At the hearing, Madigan’s office argued the state comptroller cannot legally cut checks to workers because the General Assembly and the governor have not agreed on a spending plan that would authorize the payments. Allowing the checks to go out would violate the state constitution, Madigan’s office argued. Attorneys for the comptroller’s office, headed by Rauner appointee Leslie Munger, countered that withholding pay from employees would violate federal law, which requires that employers pay their workers at least federal minimum wage. They said, however, that adjusting the payroll system to do so would take many months and asked the judge to authorize paying all workers in full. The comptroller’s office pointed to a similar situation in 2007, when a court ordered payment of state workers while state government was without a budget. That ruling came after it became clear the state did not have the ability to make the payroll change to comply with federal law. But the court was clear that its decision was not intended to set a legal precedent. Please see BUDGET | 2
C hris B rannon | @chrisbrannonDE Cody Yarnell, a senior from Fairfield studying exercise science, holds a solution in water to control it’s temperature while periodically checking it’s light absorbance Tuesday.
Celebrating the Fourth at Crab Orchard Off the beaten path Photos by Written by Sarah Jay Holland Niebrugge
This weekend, I spent my Fourth of July holiday camping with my parents along Crab Orchard Lake. Crab Orchard Lake Campground, located less than 7 miles east of Carbondale off Highway 13, is open from April 1 to October 31 with a range of primitive to full hook up campsites.
J ay h olland | @JayHolland_DE Trevor Myers, of Herrin, rides a Jet Ski on Crab Orchard Lake Saturday. He said his family comes to the campgrounds a few times each summer and stays for four or five nights.
I expected the campground to be filled with others celebrating the holiday, and my assumptions were correct. My sister arrived at the site at 10 a.m. Friday to ensure we had a spot, preferably along the water. However, when she showed up, they had only one spot left. My parents came later that afternoon to set up the trailer and spend the first night of the weekend relaxing and exploring the area. Jay Holland and I arrived the next day with our cars loaded with kayaks, ready for a day away from the usual hustle and bustle of our average weekdays. We fortunately had a spot right next to a boat ramp and quickly got to unloading the kayaks and setting off on the lake. The entire lake covers nearly 7,000 acres and has a shoreline of 125 miles, according to Illinois Department of Natural Resource’s website. This body of water was quite different from Devil’s Kitchen, the last lake we floated through. While Devil’s Kitchen was more relaxed and a bit narrower, Crab Orchard Lake had no horsepower limit for boats, so keeping an eye out for close boats was a much higher priority than before. Please see FOURTH | 4