Yet another reason to be proud of Illinois >:/

Trooper's widow cut off by lack of budget; says Blago's office hung up on her - Tuesday, August 21, 2007



By ADRIANA COLINDRES
STATE CAPITOL BUREAU
STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER


Karla Miller, the widow of an Illinois State Police trooper who died while on duty, was surprised to learn Monday that her next survivor-benefits check won't arrive until state government gets a new budget.
She got another surprise when she tried to alert Gov. Rod Blagojevich's legislative office to her situation. Miller said the man she spoke to eventually hung up on her. She didn't get his full name.

"He was very flippant and just said, you know, we're all worried about the budget and we'll get it fixed and that kind of thing," she said. "He started to get a little testy with me, and I started to get a little testy back, and then he hung up on me."

Miller's husband, Rodney, was killed in May 2006 in a traffic accident in rural Champaign County. His survivors include Karla, 41, and their two sons, now ages 11 and 12.

Karla Miller, who lives in Decatur, knew she hadn't received her monthly benefits check this month, but she thought maybe it had been lost in the mail.

She said she called the state police and was told that "no survivors will get their checks" until a budget is in place. Her check usually arrives in the first half of the month.

Lawmakers have sent the governor a $59 billion budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. Blagojevich said last Tuesday that he would use his veto power to slash $500 million from the spending plan. He also wants to expand state-subsidized health care at a cost of $463 million.

As of late Monday, though, Blagojevich had not filed his promised veto, which would specify where he wants to make budget cuts. In the meantime, state government runs without a budget.

Miller, after hearing from the state police, said she called the governor's office "because I didn't know where else to call."

"What I wanted to get across to the governor is that, you're working out this big picture and trying to make all these political moves," Miller said. "And I don't think anybody's thinking of the people that are really affected by it."

She said she worries about others who are more dependent than she is on the survivor benefits.

"I'm not desperate for the money, yet," she said. "But it will get to that point because I just quit my job, and I'm dependent on this money as my source of income."

Miller is leaving her position as vice president of community engagement at ADM to stay home with her children, who are still dealing with the loss of their father.

Upon hearing about Miller's experience, Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff shifted the blame to Comptroller Dan Hynes. She said his office received the paperwork needed to process survivor benefits a couple of weeks ago.

"In our view, those payments should have been made," Ottenhoff said.

But Hynes spokeswoman, Carol Knowles, said Hynes' office cannot issue the payments without a new state budget in place.

"The governor and his staff are well aware that, absent appropriations authority or a court order, there are millions of dollars of critical payments that the state is unable to make," Knowles said. "The comptroller has repeated this warning to them again and again, and yet it's gone ignored."

Payments that have been delayed because of the state budget uncertainty include $340 million worth of general state aid payments for schools, almost $600,000 in worker's compensation payments and $4.7 million in highway and bridge construction and repair funds, Hynes' office said.