State Owes $5 Billion in Overdue Payments
By
Fanna Haile-Selassie
By
Mike Kaan
Story Created:
Oct 16, 2011 at 9:27 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Oct 17, 2011 at 9:38 AM CDT
WSIL TV - The state of Illinois has the worst backlog of overdue bills of any state in the country. Illinois is facing more than a 160,000 outstanding bills, a deficit of close to $5 billion. Lawmakers say the problem has grown worse in the last decade.
In southern Illinois, counties are waiting for delinquent payments anywhere from $500,000 to more than $12 million, and with the veto session approaching, local lawmakers say they won't be able to solve the whole problem, but they will try to start.
It's a tricky balancing act lawmakers play every year. Only, recent budgets may reflect more illusions than the squeeze of actually walking that fine line, by delaying payments due, to give the state's bank account the appearance of a few more dollars.
"Everybody is trying to play games and blame it on somebody else, but the budget was flawed," says democrat Senator Gary Forby.
Despite the budget bills legislators pass every year, the number of delinquent payments the state owes its vendors continues to grow, forcing schools, hospitals, and contracted agencies to wait far beyond the standard 30 days to receive their money.
The state owes Jackson County the most amount of money in southern Illinois, $12.6 million according to data from the state Comptroller's Office. Some of those state vendors have been waiting for paychecks since December of 2010.
"I have a lot of people talk to me about working for the state, and I just tell them up front, if you can't wait 6 or 8 months for your money, I wouldn't work for the state," exclaims Forby.
Representative Mike Bost says this is not a new problem, but explains that lawmakers finally started addressing the backlog this year by passing a budget that kept spending levels similar to those the year before.
"If the governor will leave the budget alone, and then any new revenue that come in above what our budget was that we passed, don't create new programs, don't throw it into the system per se to create more government, take it and pay the bills," explains Bost.
Whether lawmakers can figure how to solve the problem, may depend on clearing out the smoke and mirrors, and getting back up on the tightrope.
Lawmakers head back to Springfield in a little more than a week. If you'd like to take see how much the state owes your community, click on the link in the related content box.
