State Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) has responded to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's latest campaign ad stressing fiscal success with some harsh words about his spending.
"In a way that would make Mike Madigan proud, Governor Pritzker has recklessly squandered billions of dollars of federal relief payments on partisan pork projects and increased government spending," Demmer said in a post to his Twitter account on Jan. 4.
Illinois has had debt problems for some time, but the problem has continued to deteriorate. In Truth in Accounting's October 2021 Financial State of the States report, Illinois received a grade of F.
In November, when the Illinois pension debt was $530 billion, Center Square stated that each household in the state would owe an average of $110,000 each to pay off the debt. That number has doubled over the past 13 years and does not count taxes that citizens are already paying. The state did manage to pay off a 2020 loan to cover expenses pertaining to COVID-19 earlier this month. Illinois Comptroller Susan Mendoza claimed that would save the state and taxpayers $82 million in interest payments.
Despite that positive news it is estimated that the state of Illinois has only $36 billion in available assets to pay bills, not coming close to the $272 billion that the state owes. The financial situation in Illinois has only continued to deteriorate over the past two years despite receiving a considerable amount of aid money in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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