CHICAGO – State Comptroller Leslie Munger held a press conference Sunday morning in Chicago to announce that state elected officials will not get their April 30th paychecks until late June, due to state budget crisis.
Munger did not refer to state employees as a part of her delayed-payment plan.
Freelance Chicago journalist Jeff Berkowitz was on hand at the sparsely-attended conference. He reports:
Currently, the backlog for state vendor payments is about two months. Thus, said Comptroller Munger, State lawmakers and state-wide officeholders, whose next paychecks are due to go out on April 30, will probably not receive their checks until late June. If the payment and State revenue situation worsens, as expected over the summer, the checks will be received in the third month, or later, after the due date.
The Comptroller reminded those present that Illinois is in the 10th month of trying to function without an appropriated budget. She said, “As a result, we are paying 90% of the state’s bills under court orders, consent degrees and statutory requirements. Many of those court orders do not have spending caps, which has put the State on track to spend 1.2 billion dollars more than Fiscal Year 2015 while bringing in 5 billion dollars less in revenue [reflecting an additional half year in which the individual tax rate reduction was in effect, as well as the State not yet receiving "Fund Sweeps," in Fiscal Year 2016]. That means the State is on pace to bring on another 6.2 billion dollars in debt this year (the Fiscal Year 2016 deficit), which will worsen the State's fiscal position, exacerbate cash flows and lengthen the state payment delays.” Adding the 2016 deficit to the prior backlog of bills will result in a more than $10 billion bill backlog.
The Comptroller continued, “Without a balanced budget, we have no limits on spending and we are promising spending that we have no means to pay for. This is [hurting] families, social service providers, higher education, municipalities and businesses throughout our state."
Read the rest of Berkowitz press conference coverage HERE.
