Illinois comptroller Susana Mendoza is applauding passage of the Debt Transparency Act and reductions in the state's massive bill backlog.
State agencies will have to report bills they have in the hopper to the comptroller's office monthly instead of yearly under the act, giving Mendoza a better idea of what's owed. She says they are starting to chip away at the more than 16 billion dollar backlog...thanks to the recent bond sale that's letting her office start issuing payments.
Legislation sponsor Senator Andy Manar says this will give Mendoza a clearer picture of how much the state owes.
Mendoza says this will also help cut interest costs as the state has already racked up an estimated 900 million dollars in late payment penalties.
“So we’re paying interest at 12 percent, and we want to stop the bleeding of that."
In all, Mendoza says Illinois will be paying out about $6.5 billion in the next few days.
