It was widely reported yesterday that our esteemed Illinois state government has moved ever closer to that ever-so-magical number of $4 billion in unpaid bills. The State Comptroller’s Office revealed that the tab has hit $3.99 billion! The silver lining: a backlog of almost $4 billion was being reported in December of last year! Standing pat is progress, right? The silver lining, right?
Not exactly. In order to avoid hitting the $5 billion mark in unpaid bills by last March, the government entered into a short-term borrowing arrangement to the tune of $1.4 billion in December (click here for more). Since then, the government has entered into two more loans totaling $2.25 billion. Hypothetically, Illinois will be paying out $26.8 million in interest payments this year for just the last two loans- that is, if Illinois can pay. www.ioc.state.il.us
Yes, Illinois has truly earned the dubious honor of being listed amongst the 10 worst budgets in the country. Thank you, Pew Center on the States!
Just to round out the retrospective, here are some more “unpaid backlog” numbers for you. $3.99 billion in 2009, almost $4 billion in December 2008, $1.7 billion in December 2007 (click for more), $1.5 billion in January 2005 (click for more), and so it goes. While it’s true that every business has “accounts payable,” not every business functions by making people wait over 60 days to collect the money they are owed… which is exactly what Illinois is doing.
This cannot continue.
