Illinois’ unpaid vendor debt dipped to $9,114,388,473.74 as of Nov. 29, after the state recently issued $6 billion worth of general obligation bonds toward the state’s once record-setting debt.
The Herald Sun reports the bonds are rated BBB- by Standard & Poor's and Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Services.
Before the bonds were issued, debt swelled to as high $16,675,255,779.90 as of Nov. 7, more than $1.5 billion more than where it was at the start of October, a posting from the state comptroller's office said. Bloomberg reported that the increase was reported to be largely fueled by news that after a two-year impasse, the state had finally enacted a budget to reduce the risk of the state being downgraded to junk status.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner
The website added the state’s overall outlook was raised by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s then planned idea of selling the bonds for the express purpose of applying them toward the runaway debt.
During the two-year period where the state operated with no budget in place, the state’s bill backlog tripled from roughly $5 billion. Debt continues to escalate by at least $2 million a day in late payment interest penalties.
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