County governments in Illinois are receiving reimbursements from the state to help pay for part of their operations.
Several counties had sued the state for the funds after the state failed to pay them during the ongoing budget standoff.
One of those that filed a lawsuit was Union County. State's attorney Tyler Edmonds says they were seeking funds to help pay for the salaries of the State's Attorney, Lead Public Defender, and Supervisor of Assessments.
"The state is reimbursing the county for the cost that the county has in employing those individuals. Because a good portion of the work my office does as well as the public defender and the assessor really relate to functions of state government that are basically handed over from the state level to the county level."
He says when the county's fiscal year started on December 1, it was not receiving state funds for the Motor Fuel Tax, reimbursements and some grants. Edmonds says the situation has now improved.
"Little by little each of those has been resolved. There was a bill that funded the Motor Fuels Tax, that funded the Violent Crime Victims Assistance grant, that employs a person in the State's Attorney's office. So, with the salary reimbursements, we've almost got the county squared away with state funding."
Edmonds says Union County received $88,000 in reimbursements for the months of June through December.
He says he has contacted the Attorney General's office and will drop the county's suit next week.
Williamson County State's attorney Brandon Zanotti also filed suit for the reimbursements. But, he says he's not ready to let his court action go just yet until he's confident the funding will continue.
"Forgive me if I'm a little gun shy on that. I really would ideally like some kind of harder, more concrete guarantee, if you will, that they will continue to do that before we just simply drop our suit. I wouldn't want to be in a position where we dismiss the suit only to have to turn right around and re-file."
Zanotti says Williamson County received reimbursements through December totaling almost $143,000.
