Illinois, which has operated without a budget for almost a year, now has the lowest credit score in the U.S. and state Sen. Dan McConchie (R-Dist. 26) isn't surprised.
“This is very unfortunate in regards to what is going on in our state and it just goes to prove the continued problems that we are having where ... the Democrats in the legislature could not agree on what budget to even send the governor for consideration,” he said.
McConchie said it's clear that the primary interests of legislators is not the taxpayers or government programs, but he isn't surprised by the latest turn of events.
Illinois is now facing seemingly insurmountable debt, with Moody’s Investors Service issuing another bond downgrade on Thursday dropping the state’s bond rating to Baa2 from Baa1 based on its $26 billion in debt. To make matters worse, construction bonds and bonds that support the expanding of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority were downgraded to Baa2 as well.
The backlog bills for Illinois is expected to exceed a record high of $10 billion in the coming months, according to Moody’s.
"It is an unfortunate situation, but nobody should be surprised at what is going on here," McConchie said. "Nobody should be surprised at the downgrade given the fact that the leaders won’t even agree on what type of budget to send the governor."
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