IEPA, Madigan clash over money

SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois' environmental protection agency and the state's attorney general have worked together on hundreds of cases to crack down on polluters.

But that cooperation may be coming to a screeching halt.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is accusing Attorney General Lisa Madigan of unfairly changing how about $4 million in settlements and fines are allocated to the state agency.

Madigan, who has the final word on where such funds are directed, wants a 50-50 split with the IEPA to help her office cover legal costs of pursuing polluters -- a change from earlier practices that made much of that money available for environmental education and grant programs.

The IEPA accuses Madigan of trying to offset $2.5 million in budget cuts ordered by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And agency officials says the new split is "more in the self-interest of the attorney general than in the interest of the Illinois EPA."

"Until this issue is appropriately resolved, the Illinois EPA will cease referring matters to your office for enforcement," IEPA chief legal council, Robert Messina, wrote in a Sept. 27 letter to Madigan's office, according to a report in weekend editions of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The budget process, Messina continued, "is a political one with issues to be resolved only through the political process -- not by self-help."

Ann Spillane, Madigan's chief of staff, dismissed the IEPA's stance, calling it "a legally unsupported and ridiculous overreaction."

"If they make the decision to refuse to refer cases to us, that would be ... a dereliction of duties to protect the people of this state," she said.