By Dave Dahl
SPRINGFIELD – David Letterman would be proud.
Illinois comptroller Susana Mendoza is out with a top ten list of her office’s accomplishments in 2023. Most of them have to do with paying things off – and paying things off early.
“We’ve gone from a 210-business-day payment delay, which is almost nine and a half months, to less than two weeks,” Mendoza said. “Essentially my oldest bill is thirteen days old, which is tremendous. It’s literally faster than the private sector.”
Mendoza, adding that her policies have made her so popular that she is Illinois’ top vote-getter, threw shade at former Gov. Bruce Rauner, who was in office when she became comptroller in 2016.
“It was my fight against the prior governor, leading the charge for a bond refinance, and, thankfully, I won that battle for taxpayers,” she said. “Because of my efforts as your comptroller, taking on a governor who was hell-bent against it, we were able to refinance $6 billion of that $17 billion backlog of bills that I inherited.”
The state now owes less than $1 billion.
Her office’s Number One accomplishment, she said, was the state attaining three more credit upgrades, for a total of nine in a row.
- Three more credit upgrades, totaling nine.
- $2 billion in the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
- A new law benefiting police officers who contract covid.
- A surplus of $1 billion in the General Revenue Fund for FY 23.
- Unpaid bill backlog below $1 billion.
- $200 million more than required deposited into Pension Stabilization Fund.
- Forced back wages paid under Prevailing Wage Act.
- Bills paid within two weeks.
- Legislation passes committee for regular payments into Rainy Day Fund and Pension Stabilization Fund.
- Paid off all covid unemployment insurance loans.
Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].
