Following is the response of SEIU Healthcare Illinois Vice President James Muhammad to a Cook County judge’s ruling today that the State of Illinois cannot pay workers in full without an approved budget:

“A principle outcome of today’s ruling in Cook County is that it further puts at risk critical services for vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities throughout Illinois. The ruling highlights the need for Gov. Rauner to stop his political posturing, negotiate in good faith and come to the table with solutions to a budget crisis he looks to have courted.

“Vulnerable Illinoisans already are being harmed by Gov. Rauner’s days of crisis that have done nothing to solve our long-term problems but have done everything to avoid meeting the immediate needs of the most vulnerable.”