By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – Time to make resolutions – but Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza has some which won’t have you fighting a crowd at the gym.
She draws a parallel between what she does in state government and what we can do at home. “When I started in this position,” she said, “we had $48,000 in the rainy-day fund. That is tragic; it’s not enough to cover thirty seconds’ worth of government operations. Today, we have $2.2 billion, which is the highest amount of emergency fund we have had in our state’s history.”
It’s not enough, she adds. Mendoza says the $2.2 billion can carry Illinois for about fifteen days – about a third the number of days the average state holds.
Other tips: put credit card debts onto one new zero-interest card; set up your bank accounts to automatically and regularly deposit to savings; and regularly check your credit report. Mendoza says she checks hers twice a month.
She did not say what her credit score is.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].
