2016/05/09 - Walter's Blog: State of Illinois Finances

Democracy on the Front Lines
City Administrator’s Blog
Walter Denton

May 9, 2016

It’s not exactly news that the Illinois state government is in a financial crisis. However, it can be difficult to get your mind around the numbers to fathom just how much trouble the state government is in.

Illinois State Comptroller Leslie Giessler Munger recently spoke to the Illinois Municipal League with a helpful analogy to understand Illinois finances. Rather than getting bogged down in all of the zeroes and billions of dollars, Munger suggested we evaluate State Finances as if they were our home finances.

Imagine if the State of Illinois' finances were our personal home finances; in the following situation, the State of Illinois has:

  • $7,000 in bills to pay on the kitchen table
  • $2,000 more in bills you know are coming in the mail
  • $110,000 in credit card debt
  • $100 in your bank account.

The state has now gone 11 months without a budget. Through consent decrees and judicial decisions the state is still spending 90% of last year’s budget, but because of the income tax rollback the state is not collecting enough revenue to cover even that.

In this context, it is inaccurate to say Illinois is going broke. The state government is already broke.