Illinois' bill backlog is growing once again as the state's budget for the current fiscal year runs out of money.
Though state money is supposed to last through July 1, funding for programs like subsidized childcare, prison guard salaries and court reporters began drying up last month.
Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger says her office is doing what it can to normalize funding to these programs. That includes ballooning the backlog back up to $8 billion.
"We are working with them to pay them what we can, to put in place a predictable payment stream so they can budget for what they are going to get even though it's not everything we owe them."
Munger was appointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner. But she hasn't been the doormat some Capitol-watchers expected her to be.
Soon after Rauner took office, he issued an executive order to halt the payment of unions from state paychecks. Instead of complying with the order, Munger sought the legal opinion of Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who declared the action was out of the governor's authority.
At the same time, Munger praised Rauner's proposed budget for not spending more than the state is taking in. That’s a constitutional requirement rarely followed in Illinois.
But more than $2 billion of the governor's plan depends on savings from reducing benefits for state workers. Munger ignored that provision, instead saying next year's budget is far from final.
"What the governor has put forth in his budget address is a starting point for discussion for how to get us to what I think will be the first balanced budget that we've had in more than a decade ... from there we'll see what we can and cannot pay."
Munger says her office is focused on dealing with this year's budget, which has run out of money with more than three months left in the fiscal year.
