The financial collapse of Illinois is accelerating

John O'Connor of the AP has just broken the news that the unpaid bills of the Great State of Illinois have reached the awe-inspiring sum of $16.5 billion.

Illinois is chasing a moving target as it tries to dig out of the nation's worst budget crisis, and a review obtained by The Associated Press shows $7.5 billion worth of unpaid bills – as much as half the total – hadn't been sent to the official who writes the checks by the end of June.

Although many of those IOUs have since been paid, a similar amount in unprocessed bills has replaced them in the last three months, Comptroller Susana Mendoza's office said Monday. That's in addition to $9 billion worth of checks that are at the office but being delayed because the state lacks the money to pay them.
Various bureaucratic tricks are being performed to slow down payment, but they all amount to stiffing the vendors, borrowing their capital at no immediate cost.

In some cases, agencies were waiting to send their receipts to Mendoza because lawmakers haven't approved the spending. For example, the Department of Corrections had $471 million in unpaid bills on hand as of June 30 largely for that reason.

"Ascertaining the precise nature of the state's past-due obligations and liabilities is an essential component of responsible cash and debt management," the Democratic comptroller wrote in a letter to Republican Rep. David McSweeney, a budget hawk from Barrington Hills who requested the review.

O'Connor covers the maneuvers going on to the finesse the problem away, none of which will solve it.

You are substantially overstating California's fiscal condition: "On the basis of its fiscal solvency in five separate categories, California ranks 43rd among the US states for its fiscal health. California’s performance across several categories is weak. The state has between 75 percent and 154 percent of the cash needed to cover short-term obligations; this is far lower than the average in the states. California’s budgetary solvency is much stronger. Revenues exceed spending by 6 percent, and net position improved by $403 per capita. On a long-run basis, California’s net asset ratio of −0.62 indicates the state is reliant on debt to finance its operations. Long-term liabilities are 93 percent of total assets. On a guaranteed-to-be-paid basis, unfunded pension obligations and OPEB are 48 percent of state personal income." XXXXXXXXXXXXXX The difference today between CA and IL is the fact that CA's economy is twice as healthy as IL's percentage-wise. If CA's economy goes South, CA will go broke in short order. I live in CA and I can tell you that our government is turning over rocks everywhere trying to "enhance" revenues. But it won't work because they've sold out to the PE unions and so needed haircuts will never occur.

I was referring specifically and exclusively to the wealth of the STATE, not the state government’s fiscal health.

I even said they still have a great deal of ability to raise new taxes against this enormous state economy.

The real bomb that will go off is Cali's public employee pensions....Brown and his two predecessors ignored it.....Davis contributed to it by increasing the formula raising pension payouts.

CALI FIREMAN POCKETS ANNUAL MILLION DOLLAR PENSION A Los Angeles fireman retired in his 50s with a pension of over 1 million dollars per year with lifetime medical benefits.

Job Title: Assistant Chief---Retired 2010---Years service 32

Rec'd from L/A Fire and Police Employees’ Pension Fund 2015: $1,164,022.65 annual

Lifetime Health Benefits $17,286.69 annual

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...

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