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Comptroller repeats call for budget compromise

Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger visits Peoria City Hall chamber.  6/21/16
Tanya Koonce
Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger visits Peoria City Hall chamber. 6/21/16
Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger visits Peoria City Hall chamber.  6/21/16
Credit Tanya Koonce
Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger visits Peoria City Hall chamber. 6/21/16

Illinois’ Comptroller is calling on lawmakers and the Governor to come to some kind of budget agreement in the next ten days. The July first start of the state’s new fiscal year without a budget means the four special spending plans sunset.

Comptroller Leslie Munger says nearly $23 Billion will go unpaid for K-12 education, 911 call centers, home-delivered meals for seniors, domestic violence shelters, lottery winners, and colleges and universities.

Munger says that’s on top of the state’s existing outstanding bills:

“There have been more than 5,000 contracts that have been filed with my office. They total nearly 1-billion dollars, and they are being held at agencies because there is no legal authority for her to make payments on those right now.”

Credit Tanya Koonce

Munger has no lawmaking authority and says she doesn’t know what else to do beside putting lawmakers paychecks in the back of the line with state’s current bills.

She says the last paycheck they received was March30thand the next one will go out early next month.

Mungersays some legislators are calling her office declaring they need to be paid in order to cover their mortgage payments.

Copyright 2021 WCBU. To see more, visit WCBU.

Tanya Koonce is the News Director at Peoria Public Radio. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism from Eastern Illinois University, and a M.A. in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield. Tanya started her news career in TV, managed two political campaigns after college, worked in state government and did some state association work before going back to school. Post master’s degree, she’s worked in commercial radio and operated her own freelance agency before taking a reporter position at WCBU in 2001, and becoming news director in 2008. She’s currently serving as the Treasurer of the Illinois News Broadcaster’s Association, lives in Peoria and loves discovering interesting people, places and things.