Cites Possibility that Taxpayers’ Dollars Have Been Spent in Violation of State Constitution.
Former prosecutor and current public interest attorney Richard Caro who has been in the forefront of a constitutional battle to keep the governor of Illinois from transgressing the rights of the legislature, has filed a motion for reconsideration after a dismissal of his case by a circuit court judge.
In his motion, Caro pointed out that his action was designed to prevent any public expenditure in behalf of the AllKids bridge program by transferring money not appropriated to it by executive fiat. Judge Kathleen Mary Pantle did not address that point in her preemptory Sept. 28 dismissal of his lawsuit, he says.
Caro’s point that monies have been in fact expended unconstitutionally has to do with the governor’s Aug. 30 announcement that the program was being established and implemented. Judge Pantle concentrated on a very narrow point that three state agencies were going to implement his proposal and that a statement was made that the government was identifying 19 and 20-year olds eligible and that the program would soon be in effect. The agencies are the Board of Comprehensive Insurance Plans, the Department of Public Health and the Department of Health and Family Services.
The attorney cited the fact that “these statements by state agencies don’t support the judge’s interpretation,” Caro told The Chicago Daily Observer.
“As I have noted before, the judge did not address one of the two expenditure issues I raised. My contention is that any money spent to establish and implement the program is an expenditure in furtherance of a usurpation of the exclusive right of the legislature and, accordingly, a violation of the separation of powers provision of the Illinois constitution.”
Caro declared that “the new Free Breast Cancer Screening Program for All Uninsured Illinois Women went into effect on Oct. 1. “The Illinois Department of Public Health [IDPH] made no pre-announcement that it would implement the extension as required and other requirements were not complied with.” He added the Michael McRaith, chairman of the Illinois Board of Comprehensive Health Insurance, a state administrator, announced that that program would cost $20 million per year and that “the state will look immediately for eligible participants immediately with coverage beginning in months.”
The Riverside attorney said, “at the very least the court should require that the defendants disclose…exactly what [they] are doing” since once an expenditure of state funds is made the money is not recoverable.”
The only Chicago news media outlet to cover this historic lawsuit has been The Chicago Daily Observer.
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Thomas F. Roeser is chairman of the editorial board of The Chicago Daily Observer.