New Pew Research data highlights Illinois now ranks last in the country in terms of being able to withstand a financial crisis.
Illinois state Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, wonders when state lawmakers will get out of their own way when it comes to fiscally steering the state on the right track.
“We've been clearing out our own tax base and we aren't growing as an economy,” Ugaste told The Center Square. “We aren't growing our business base as we should. If there's any growth at all, we're lagging the rest of the nation. We should be well ahead of where we are. We'd have more revenue coming in that way with less taxation on each individual and each business.”
As it is, data shows Illinois barely has just two weeks of reserves in its rainy-day fund and the state also has less funding to pay its own bills than any other at just 28 days of reserves. With the state’s total fund balances also ranking last and the state being the only one in the country with less than 30 days’ worth of total reserve balances on hand, Ugaste warned Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2026 budget plan, with all its proposed spending increases, stands to do little to help the situation. Read the rest of the story by Greg Bishop on Advantage News.