What Happens To Money The State Owes Organizations?

By Tony Arnold
In this Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 photo, officers of Ashley’s Quality Care, Inc., a home health care business, displays invoices to the state and payroll bills on a table in Chicago. As Illinois politicians continue to squabble over a budget that should have taken effect July 1, hundreds of state contractors have been left with little more than I.O.U.s, according to more than 500 pages of documents, since Nov. 1, released to The Associated Press under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The state owes $2 million to Ashley’s Quality Care in Chicago, according to chief accountant Michael Robinson.
In this Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 photo, officers of Ashley’s Quality Care, Inc., a home health care business, displays invoices to the state and payroll bills on a table in Chicago. As Illinois politicians continue to squabble over a budget that should have taken effect July 1, hundreds of state contractors have been left with little more than I.O.U.s, according to more than 500 pages of documents, since Nov. 1, released to The Associated Press under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The state owes $2 million to Ashley’s Quality Care in Chicago, according to chief accountant Michael Robinson. M. Spencer Green / AP
In this Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 photo, officers of Ashley’s Quality Care, Inc., a home health care business, displays invoices to the state and payroll bills on a table in Chicago. As Illinois politicians continue to squabble over a budget that should have taken effect July 1, hundreds of state contractors have been left with little more than I.O.U.s, according to more than 500 pages of documents, since Nov. 1, released to The Associated Press under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The state owes $2 million to Ashley’s Quality Care in Chicago, according to chief accountant Michael Robinson.
In this Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 photo, officers of Ashley’s Quality Care, Inc., a home health care business, displays invoices to the state and payroll bills on a table in Chicago. As Illinois politicians continue to squabble over a budget that should have taken effect July 1, hundreds of state contractors have been left with little more than I.O.U.s, according to more than 500 pages of documents, since Nov. 1, released to The Associated Press under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The state owes $2 million to Ashley’s Quality Care in Chicago, according to chief accountant Michael Robinson. M. Spencer Green / AP

What Happens To Money The State Owes Organizations?

By Tony Arnold
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Illinois’ state government signed some contracts with outside groups even though it knew there wasn’t a budget to pay them. Now lawmakers are trying to figure out how - and if - those groups will get paid. 

At a hearing at the Statehouse Chicago Democrat Greg Harris estimated the Department of Human Services owes about $357 million dollars that it spent without an appropriation. Harris suggested the legislature shouldn’t have to provide that money, when the agency - which reports to the governor - spent it.