It’s another example of the high cost of Illinois’s long budget stalemate. A new report from Comptroller Susana Mendoza says the state paid more in late payment interest penalties in the last two-and-a-half years than it did in the 18 previous years combined.
Mendoza says between 1998 and 2015, Illinois shelled out just over a billion dollars in penalties for failing to pay bills on time.
But from 2016 to 2018… most of that time without a state budget… Illinois paid more than $1.1 billion.
Mendoza puts the blame on Governor Bruce Rauner and says allowing the state to waste that much money on late fees is, quote, “asinine.”