The Illinois Comptroller’s office just issued the latest monthly “Debt Transparency Report.” Three main takeways include:
- Total bill backlog for the general funds and the health insurance funds declined from $8.7 billion as of February 28, 2018 to $8.2 billion at the end of March.
- Late payment interest penalties were reported at $398 million, down from $415 million at the end of February. Notably, the sentence in last month’s report reading “The balance of owed interest is expected to grow as payment delays continue” did not appear this month.
- The comptroller’s office will be issuing a special report on late payment interest penalties later in April.
It takes two to tango, they say, but so far the Illinois Debt Transparency Reports are dancing with themselves. We are receiving valuable information about amounts owed by Illinois state agencies, but nothing about who the parties are that are owed the money. Perhaps that might be in the forthcoming special report on late payment interest penalties.