FROM THE COMPTROLLER

Meeting challenges, planning for the future

Dear Readers,

With 2024 now underway, I can’t help but reflect on what amazing progress we as a state have made over the past year. It’s been hard work, but Illinois is finally back on track and hitting fiscal goals we haven’t seen in decades.

Thanks to a commitment to fiscal discipline, paying bills on time and building up our reserves, Illinois was rewarded with NINE credit rating upgrades in the past few years. That’s a win for the state, and for taxpayers.

I proudly paid off the last of the state’s COVID-19 insurance loans earlier than expected, saving taxpayers $20 million in interest.

The once enormous backlog of bills has been eliminated, and we are now paying bills within 14 days on average — faster than the private sector. Just think, during the budget impasse, state vendors were waiting nine months! Accounts payable are now under $1 billion for the first time in 15 years.

In 2023, my office deposited $200 million above the required minimum into the state’s Pension Stabilization Fund and ended the fiscal year with more than $1 billion in the state’s General Revenue Fund — a benchmark not seen in two decades.

The feat I may be most proud of is building up our Rainy Day Fund, which now has more than $2 billion dollars for the first time in state history. I will carefully safeguard our reserves to be used only in fiscal crises like the recent pandemic.

Legislatively, our Act-of-Duty bill to cover police officers severely injured by COVID-19 in the days before vaccines was passed unanimously by lawmakers and signed into law by Governor Pritzker last May. The law stops police boards from making police officers — like my brother, Chicago Police Det. Sgt. Joaquin Mendoza, feel that they are worth more dead than alive.

Now, 2024 is about the future. I will continue to push for legislation requiring regular deposits into the Rainy Day and Pension Stabilization Funds when the state can afford it and will remain Illinois’ stalwart watchdog for fiscal discipline and transparency.

You will see our February 2024 Fiscal Focus cover story is about the future — the future of Illinois as a leader in the electric vehicle industry. Whether it be auto manufacturers or the makers of electric vehicle batteries and other parts, the state is rapidly gaining interest from EV companies, many of which have already set up shop here in Illinois. There are some growing pains, but I look forward to seeing the state continue to dominate in this field.

This issue also delves deeper into our financial achievements, and highlights the successful nonprofit Little City, which serves people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. We also look at the importance of the Southern Illinois Airport, our office’s Bank On program and remember my dear friend, Ed Smith, who made a national impact fighting for the rights of workers in organized labor, but who kept his feet firmly planted in his native soil of Southern Illinois.

I hope you enjoy this issue and find it informative and interesting, and I also invite you to join the Illinois Office of Comptroller on Facebook, X and Instagram.

Cheers to a new year and thanks for reading,

Illinois State Comptroller