Illinois Comptroller Leslie Geissler Munger said that the state won’t be able to pay its workers, and will have to stop paying Medicaid and end school aid if lawmakers don’t pass a budget in the next three weeks, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The lack of a spending plan for the year starting July 1 is increasing pressure on Illinois’s already stressed finances, Munger said yesterday. The Democrat-controlled legislature and Republican Governor Bruce Rauner failed to agree before the session ended May 31 on how to close a $6.2 billion budget gap for the coming fiscal year. A solution now requires a three-fifths vote rather than a simple majority. The standoff has intensified the financial crisis and heightened the risk of credit downgrades. Employees would miss paychecks starting July 15 and schools won’t receive aid set for distribution Aug. 10, Munger said. Some payments would continue, including debt, pension, retiree benefits and welfare, she said.
