Marathon Pundit: ILL-inois: State comptroller says $86 million "flushed away" last year

Illinois flag on the right

The day after over-taxed Illinoisans had to file their state income tax, the Rockford Register Star tells us one way our hard earned cash is wasted.

The answer for at least $86.3 million last year is that it gets "flushed away," according to state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka.

The line of unpaid vendors is much longer and the bill is much higher than that comparatively small amount — the total for outstanding bills stood at nearly $5.9 billion as of Friday afternoon — but those tens of millions of dollars last year went to cover interest owed on those late payments.

If the state can’t pay its bills on time — after 90 days — private vendors become eligible for interest on the overdue amount. That accrues month after month until the bill gets paid.

It's just "another way that taxpayers are paying for years of financial mismanagement," Topinka said. "Those dollars are being flushed away and taxpayers receive nothing in return. It is the equivalent of a consumer maxing out his or her credit cards and then paying hundreds or thousands of dollars each month in interest payments alone."

According to Topinka's office, $300 million has gone down the sewer in the last decade because Illinois can't pay its bills on time.

The Rockford Register Star is possibly the most liberal paper in Illinois--even they know the Prairie State has plowed itself under.

Governor Pat Quinn, a Chicago Democrat, and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly "temporarily" raised the state personal income tax rate by 67 percent two years ago.

Topinka is a suburban Chicago Republican.

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