Comptroller Susana Mendoza says the financial outlook for the State of Illinois has gone from “Negative” to “Positive.” Mendoza says that the backlog of bills has gone down from $16.7 billion in 2017 to $3.4 billion today. She credits the hard work of the General Assembly and the Governor’s office to bring down the debt with better than expected revenues. 

One of the big reasons for the debt going down has been Comptroller Mendoza’s signature “Debt Transparency Act.”  This gives state policy-makers, legislators, and citizens a more comprehensive accounting of the state’s debts, including the progress that has been made in paying down late payment interest penalties.

All of these improved outlooks happened before any federal stimulus money, which helps bolster Illinois’ finances even more. 

From Fitch’s report:

“Accounts payable, which the state has built up as a cash flow management tool since the Global Financial Crisis, have trended lower recently with the pace of repayment accelerating this calendar year as revenue growth outpaced projections. As of May 31, the Comptroller reported an approximately $4 billion general funds bill backlog and a 12-month moving average (to adjust for seasonality) of $6.1 billion per the Debt Transparency Act (DTA) reports. This is down 14% from the pre-pandemic (February 2020) 12-month moving average of $7.1 billion. The May DTA report also notes $191 million in reported pending late payment interest penalties, down 40% from February 2020 ($319 million) and down 78% from the first DTA report from December 2017 ($887 million).”