SALINE CO., Ill. - Saline County State’s Attorney Mike Henshaw is planning to file a lawsuit on behalf of Saline County against Illinois Department of Revenue Director Constance Beard and Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler‐Munger to recoup funds owed to Saline County that have been withheld by the State of Illinois since last July.
The lawsuit, which was approved unanimously by the Saline County Board at its December 22, 2015 meeting, seeks a court order compelling the State of Illinois to pay amounts owed to Saline County from the Personal Property Tax Replacement Fund.
Since July, 2015, the State of Illinois has failed to make the required statutory reimbursements from that fund to Saline County for the salaries of the State’s Attorney, Public Defender and Supervisor of Assessments.
The amounts owed to Saline County were in excess of $73,000 as of November 30, 2015, and continue to grow.
The county board voted unanimously last night (Tuesday, December 22) to file the lawsuit against the state.
However, they forgot one little thing: They're operating without a budget themselves, and because of that, there's a dearth of funds.
How that impacts the situation as it stands is this: Today, Assistant State's Attorney Jayson Clark went to file the suit and as part of that, he has to serve summons on the Office of the Comptroller in Chicago. The summonses cost $120 service fee. However, the county doesn't have any money to fund the service of the summonses....not because of the state's failure to reimburse funds, but because they're operating without a budget. So as of today, no summonses can be served, because the county failed to pass a budget by Dec. 1 as required by law. The county has no money to pay their current bills, which includes the cost of suing the state as the board approved on Tuesday.
State's Attorney Mike Henshaw has advised that he will pay the $120 and not even ask for reimbursement.
It's unclear how, exactly, the county is going to proceed at this point.