Illinios Comptroller Susana Mendoza, left, with members of her staff, watching last November as the State Senate overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of the Debt Transparency Act, which resulted in her office's first debt transparency report last month.
Illinios Comptroller Susana Mendoza, left, with members of her staff, watching last November as the State Senate overrode Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of the Debt Transparency Act, which resulted in her office's first debt transparency report last month.
Illinois’ unpaid vendor debt hasn't changed much since May 3 and now stands at $6,492,739,186.72, an increase of just over $82 million, according to data released on May 29.
A recent report by state Comptroller Susana Mendoza highlights that over the last three years, Illinois has run up more in late-payment fees than it did in the previous 18 years combined, with several major creditors noting that they have gone more than a year without receiving the interest they are owed.
During the two-year period when the state operated without a balanced budget in place and the deficit ballooned to over $16 billion, Mendoza shared that prompt-payment penalties jumped to $1.14 billion—$100 million more than the total from 1998 up until that point.
In an effort to keep taxpayers in the loop about the state’s massive debt load, Mendoza recently initiated the Debt Transparency Act Report, which requires state agencies to report monthly liabilities in a manner outlined by the comptroller’s office.
Alerts Sign-up