It’s Tough to Even Keep Up with Rauner’s Economic Disaster

S&P Announces Credit Downgrade For Illinois To Lowest Ever Given To A State

Today both the Sun-Times Editorial Board and the Associated Press laid out the damage inflicted by the 700 day budget impasse in numerical form.
Less than 12 hours later, those stories need a new update – this morning S&P announced they were downgrading Illinois’ credit rating to BBB-, which is the “the lowest grade that it’s given to a U.S. state on record.” This marks the seventh credit downgrade Illinois suffered under Bruce Rauner. The state’s rating has fallen to the lowest in the nation.
“Today Illinois sinks even further under the weight of Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Illinois families are finding it harder and harder to get ahead without properly funded schools, adequate social services, and above all a functioning government. The damage Bruce Rauner has inflicted on Illinois will take years to recover from.”

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Sun-Times Editorial Board: By the numbers: The price and pain of no budget in Illinois
“Every miserable consequence, piling up as in the numbers below, will grow only worse.
180,000: Number of unpaid bills in Illinois as of Wednesday.
$14.5 billion: Dollar damage of those unpaid bills. The backlog has tripled since 2015 and, at this pace, will reach $28 billion by 2021. At that time, it will consume 80 percent of the state’s budget.
7 months: Average wait for a bill to be paid by the state. Illinois is now paying bills for October 2016.
9 to 12 percent: The high interest rate Illinois must pay, by law, on overdue bills.
$800 million: Interest due on the state’s unpaid bills. … Continued here.