U.S. President Barack Obama visits the Illinois General Assembly tomorrow, after serving there as a state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Here are some quick factoids illustrating developments in state finances since Obama’s state senate tenure ended:
- Total state revenue equaled or exceeded expenses in only 3 of the 10 years ended 2014, despite Illinois’ “balanced budget” requirement.
- Total liabilities reported on the state’s balance sheet rose from $57 billion in 2005 to $111 billion in 2014, while the state’s population remained basically unchanged.
- Truth in Accounting estimates that, in addition to the $111 billion in reported liabilities, Illinois accumulated over $100 billion in additional debt off of its balance sheet by 2014, driven by unfunded retirement benefit promises for state employees.
- Interest expense incurred by Illinois rose from $1.2 billion a year to over $1.8 billion a year in the ten years ended 2014 – in a period when longer-term interest rates fell about 50%.
Illinois state finances now rank among the worst in the 50 United States, according to Truth in Accounting calculations.
Some interesting and usually unspoken questions will be lurking in the background amidst the President’s address tomorrow. They relate to the possibility of federal assistance for Illinois and similarly-situated states.
Here’s one more factoid, with President Obama’s career timeline providing a reference point. On January 4, 2005, President Obama became a U.S. Senator. On that date, the U.S. Treasury Department website reports the total U.S. “total public debt outstanding” was $7.6 trillion. Today, the latest total comes to about $19 trillion. And just like Illinois, the federal government’s true debt runs far higher than the reported $19 trillion.