Truth in Accounting supports the Debt Transparency Act, but it needs some more work.
Illinois state agencies haven’t been paying their bills in a timely fashion. This isn’t news, but it’s worth noting that the total amount of unpaid bills reportedly has doubled in the last two years, and the Illinois “Prompt Payment Act” (ha!) requires high (12+ percent annualized) interest payments on those bills.
The new Debt Transparency Act moves things in the right direction, but the version of the bill that passed the Illinois House raises some questions about how transparent things are really going to be – and for whom.
Current law directs state agencies to report their unpaid bills annually, while the new law would require them to be reported monthly. The law would require agencies to report the amount of unpaid bills, whether that amount was appropriated or not, and an estimate of the interest penalties.
The question arises, however, who will get those monthly reports.
They are required to be delivered to the Illinois Comptroller’s office, not the public. The comptroller is directed, in turn, to publish a report, but only a report of an ambiguous “amount,” despite the fact that the law directs agencies to report three different “amounts.”
The public deserves to see all the information delivered to the comptroller, as well as a report on the method used to estimate interest penalties.
And to open a possible Pandora's Box, it could be helpful to learn who is earning all that interest.