Court Opinion

ID: 9731884
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:00:47.318982+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:21.704863
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE RYAN, dissenting: The majority opinion seems to indicate that the State of Illinois is obligated to pay to the county of Cook the amount of money which the county requested from the State for General Assistance purposes. I cannot accept such a conclusion and I find nothing in the statute or the regulations of the Illinois Department of Public Aid to support such a position. The General Assistance program is peculiarly a local government program. The statute (Ill.Rev.Stat. 1969, ch. 23, par. 12 — 3) provides that the local governmental units shall provide funds for and administer the programs. If a local governmental unit levies a tax of one mill for General Assistance, it qualifies for State funds to supplement the local funds. (Ch. 23, par.12 — 21.13.) If a request is made to the State for money for the program, the county must set forth an itemized statement showing estimates of assistance necessary for the ensuing month and must show the amount of money raised by taxation for this purpose. If the Department has reasons to believe that the estimates are excessive it may require the appropriate officials to substantiate the estimate “to the satisfaction of the Department.” (Ch. 23, par. 12 — 21.4.) This paragraph also provides: “The Illinois Department shall review these estimates and shall determine and allocate to the several counties the amount necessary to supplement local funds ***.” (Emphasis supplied.) The statute pertaining to General Assistance (ch. 23, par. 6 — 1 et seq.) provides certain eligibility requirements for recipients under this program. A person who is eligible under certain other provisions of the Public Aid Code but who fails or refuses to comply with the requirements to qualify him for aid under these other programs is not entitled to General Assistance. An employable person, to be eligible for General Assistance, must register for and accept suitable employment. On October 5, 1971, the Illinois Department of Public Aid circulated a memorandum which set forth the impending welfare crisis, attempted to analyze the cause therefor, and set forth certain proposed solutions. This memorandum stated that the Department has been particularly concerned with the administration of the Cook County General Assistance Program. “The inadequacy of the G. A. (General Assistance) case records with respect to even the most basic information suggested that considerable sums of federal matching money could be lost because recipients who were eligible for the federally funded programs were placed on General Assistance merely to avoid the more extensive reporting required by federal regulations. This was confirmed by written correspondence from the Cook County Department of Public Aid in June, 1970, indicating that the county was condoning this practice.” The memorandum continued to state that the General Assistance rolls now contain an increased number of single employable males who have lost jobs due to the economic turndown. The memorandum further stated that an intensive review of General Assistance cases had been undertaken. The review was incomplete but as of the date of the memorandum it indicated that a great many of the cases on General Assistance may be eligible for aid under programs for which Federal assistance is available. Some cases involve persons who suffer from serious health problems and can be qualified for assistance under the disability assistance program. In addition numerous recipients have failed to respond to requests to appear for interviews or medical examinations and are therefore subject to being dropped from the rolls. Of the 815 cases reviewed, only 413 or 51% were found to be eligible for continuing General Assistance. In addition to the Department’s recommendations concerning the removal of ineligibles from General Assistance, the memorandum also contained these recommendations: “The choices available to Cook County and Chicago might include: (1) Bring General Assistance grants into line with the remainder of the State (Cook County, currently the only home rule county in Illinois now pays an average of $144 per person compared with an average of $86 downstate); (2) Place recipients in public employment (Chicago and Cook County together have already been allocated over 1,000 new public service jobs under the Emergency Employment Act alone); (3) Make assistance available for employable persons for no more than one or two months as do most cities and counties in the country administering such a program; (4) Discontinue assistance to employables altogether; or, finally, (5) Re-allocate their own budget or raise home rule tax money to fund the existing program ***.” The memorandum pointed out that although there are 1,455 local governmental units in the State potentially eligible for State supplements in the General Assistance program, only 44 units in 16 counties actually receive the State supplement. Ninety-two percent of the State General Assistance Funds go to Chicago. In light of the analysis of the Cook County program as set forth in the memorandum, I am of the opinion that the Illinois Department, in refusing to comply with the request of Cook County for the State supplement for November, was properly exercising the authority granted to it by section 12 — 21.14 of the Public Aid Code to review estimates and determine the amount necessary to supplement local funds. It is urged that the estimates made by Cook County were based on standards promulgated by the Illinois Department. However, the standards promulgated by the Illinois Department are maximum standards, and Cook County has habitually based its estimates on the maximum amounts set forth in the regulations. It is obvious from the memorandum that other counties in the State base their estimates of the amount of money needed for General Assistance on something less than the maximum amount authorized by the standards. I am of the opinion that the Illinois Department of Public Aid was properly exercising authority granted to it by the legislature when it made an allocation to Cook County of an amount less than that which*the County requested, and that the court had no authority to compel the State of Illinois to reimburse Cook County for the full amount which it requested.