Illinois' unpaid vendor debt dipped to $8,572,304,572 during the week ending Feb. 21, putting an end to a two-week stretch where debt marginally grew higher.
According to the Illinois comptroller’s website, debt ended the week of Feb. 14, at $8,912,705,946.
Overall, the state’s unpaid debt stands at approximately half of what it was for much of 2017, a time when it regularly set record highs topping $16 billion.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza
The downward trend kicked into gear just before the new year following Gov. Bruce Rauner’s announcement that he planned to issue $6 billion worth of general obligation bonds, all of which was applied to the state’s runaway deficits.
The state’s overall debt load hit record highs during a two-year period when the state operated without a balanced budget in place, more than tripling its one-time tab of just $5 billion.
In her first monthly debt transparency report released in January, Comptroller Susana Mendoza said the state was hit with more than $1.03 billion in late payments during 2017. The debt transparency act went into effect on Jan. 1 and is aimed at keeping state legislators and Illinois residents abreast of the state’s financial standing.
More recently, Rauner kicked off negotiations for the next fiscal budget and is already calling for an end to what he has deemed as “wasteful spending.”
Alerts Sign-up