Prairie State Wire

Vendor debt in Illinois slightly dipped to $7,600,646,100.19 during the week ending July 27, down from more than $7.79 billion the week before.

Meanwhile, the backlog of vouchers, which includes vouchers and transfers to other state funds, marginally jumped from 65,600 to 65,908, according to the Illinois Comptroller’s website.

Debt has regularly hovered in the $7 to $8 billion range over the last year after Gov. Bruce Rauner moved in 2017 to issue $6 billion worth of general obligation bonds that were all earmarked for state’s spiraling debt load.

Over a two-year period where the state operated without a balanced budget in place, debt swelled to as high as $16 billion.

To keep taxpayers more in the loop about the state’s financial standing, Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza recently launched the Debt Transparency Act. Now in her second year as comptroller, Mendoza has described the guidelines of the enactment as legislation aimed at keeping taxpayers abreast of the state’s outstanding debt levels by requiring certain agencies to report monthly liabilities in a manner outlined by the comptroller’s office.