A day after the Illinois General Assembly ended it’s spring session without passing a budget — two bond rating agencies downgraded the state’s credit.
S&P Global Ratings says because of what it calls "unrelenting political brinkmanship … Illinois is now at risk of entering a negative credit spiral.” That means they think there’s a real possibility state government could run out of cash and default on its debt.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza says her office would do everything in its power to prevent that.
“There’s only one reason that we’re still even able to get any type of help financially, and that’s because Illinois has not defaulted on its bond payments. So the day we default on our bond payments, you can kiss this state goodbye.”
Another firm, Moody’s, says Illinois could avoid further downgrades if the state balances its budget. Governor Bruce Rauner has at times supported raising taxes to do that, but only if Democrats also take up his economic agenda.
