Illinois's overdue bills are 16 percent higher than previously reported. They could top ten billion dollars by end of the fiscal year.
Comptroller Leslie Munger told a state Senate appropriations committee Illinois owes more than $7 billion to private service-providers whose work is required by court orders. But there's about a billion more owed to vendors who signed contracts with the state, but whose work is not subject to a federal consent decree. That represents money owed for income-based college tuition grants, other university spending and social services.
The state has no authority to spend money because Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and legislative Democrats bickered over a fiscal plan for nine months. Munger expects the pile of backlogged bills to hit $10 billion by June 30th.