Illinois Short 5 Billion in Cash for Bills

Considering the nature of politicians that are coming out this state its not that surprising that they ran it into the ground. Just last month the state had its credit downgraded from the pension obligations and general operating costs:

CHICAGO — Illinois faces increasing pressure on liquidity as a short-term borrowing is coming due, putting the state on pace to close out the fiscal year on June 30 with a $5.5 billion backlog of bills, Comptroller Daniel Hynes warned in a recent report.

The are spending too much money and created a fiscal nightmare that is swallowing the state. In reality they are in even worse shape than originally thought:

The pension bond issue and federal stimulus funds helped fuel a 7.9% increase in base revenues of nearly $21 billion in the first three quarters of the year. Those one-time revenues only masked the more grim numbers that show individual income taxes declined by 8.1% or $536 million, and sales taxes were down $506 million, a 9.8% drop. Meanwhile, corporate income taxes declined by $112 million, an 11.4% drop compared to a year earlier.

Governor Quinn's solution to this, a 1% income tax hike along with 2.4 billion in cuts. Additionally an attempt to reign in the unfunded liabilities that haunt their state's fiscal position, the State Legislature has taken a step in the right direction by overhauling its pension plans, but even here they only instituted modest reforms that some are already being undermined.
For the Illinois Comptrollers report click here.
Thanks for the link Jaime Wearing Fool.