Illinois ended the week of Jan. 31 with unpaid vendor debt trickling down to $8,501,341,295.57, continuing a trend of at least seven straight weeks where the state’s debt issue has shown slight signs of improvement.
According to the state’s comptroller’s website, debt fell from last week’s total of $8,666,126,495.36. The downward trend kicked off in late 2017 after Gov. Bruce Rauner moved to issue $6 billion worth of general obligation bonds, all of which was applied to the state’s debt after it had spiraled to a record-high of almost $17 billion.
In September, Crain’s Chicago Business reported the state owed just under 800 companies approximately $7 billion, including 60 of them at least $10 million each. Another 13 companies were owed at least $100 million each.
Illinois went over two years without having a balanced budget in place, a period when overall debt tripled from approximately $5 billion to record highs surpassing $15 billion.
Even now, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza recently told reporters the state continues to run up approximately $2 million a day in late payment interest debt.
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