Governor’s Budget Office Predicts Fiscal Mess Without Tax Increase

The latest budget snapshot is bad news for Illinois. Governor Pritzker’s budget office on Friday said it expects the state’s deficit to rise by a billion-dollars and the state’s unpaid bills to jump by 26 billion-dollars over the next five years. The budget office says without a tax increase, or a federal bailout, Illinois will simply not have enough money to pay its bills. Illinois’ deficit is currently just under four-billion-dollars. The state has just over seven-billion in unpaid bills. The budget office says that number will hit 33-billion by 2026.