Because the state’s chief fiscal officer, the comptroller is sometimes called supervisor of the state’s checkbook. However with out an accepted finances, the comptroller had no authorized authority to write down checks on state funds, leaving distributors, contractors, well being care suppliers and lots of others in a lurch.

Greater than 500 days into that deadlock, there was a particular election for comptroller. The final elected particular person to carry that job, Judy Baar Topinka, died unexpectedly only a few weeks after successful reelection in 2014.

Rauner, a Republican who had simply been elected himself, appointed Leslie Munger, a enterprise government, to fill the seat till one other election might be held to serve out the remaining two years on Topinka’s time period. And in that election, Chicago Metropolis Clerk and former state Rep. Susana Mendoza, a Democrat, prevailed by 5 share factors.

“And so I in all probability signed up for the hardest job in authorities at the moment,” she stated throughout a podcast interview with Capitol Information Illinois. “You will recall, we principally had, I would not say an absentee governor, however we had a governor who was actively destroying the state’s funds and decimating the state’s social security community.”

Mendoza was reelected to a full four-year time period in 2018 and is now looking for one other time period, this time dealing with McHenry County Auditor Shannon Teresi within the Nov. 8 normal election.

“I’m working as a result of Illinois is probably the most corrupt, probably the most fiscally mismanaged, highest taxed, highest foreclosures price within the nation,” Teresi stated in a separate interview. “And I’m working as a result of I’m a (licensed public accountant), I’m a licensed fraud examiner, I am a licensed inner auditor with a confirmed monitor report and monetary management expertise the state has by no means had earlier than in its historical past of the comptroller’s place.”

Every candidate participated in interviews with Capitol Information Illinois for the Capitol Solid podcast as a part of a collection of pre-election interviews carried out by the information group. 

The finances deadlock ended up lasting simply over two years, from July 2015 to August 2017. Throughout that point, the state’s backlog of past-due payments reached a excessive of $16.7 billion whereas the state’s credit standing fell to only one notch above “junk” standing.

Mendoza cites paying down that backlog as her greatest accomplishment in workplace. At this time, she stated, distributors are being paid normally inside 10 days and the state is working on a daily “accounts payable” cycle.

As well as, every of the three main credit standing businesses has raised the state’s ranking by two notches, that means it’s nonetheless the bottom of any state within the nation however transferring in a constructive course.

“That’s nothing in need of outstanding,” Mendoza stated. “And I am very proud that the individuals of Illinois trusted me not simply as soon as, however twice by electing me twice to this place.”

Teresi, nonetheless, counters that the credit score upgrades and paying down past-due payments was extra the results of federal pandemic aid cash that was pumped into Illinois.

“(Gov. J.B.) Pritzker proper now could be campaigning on the bond ranking when we have now the worst bond ranking within the nation,” she stated. “The state has obtained over $185 billion collectively to not simply the state, however all of the businesses inside the state. And this has bolstered the economic system. And they’re attempting to take credit score for it.”

The $185 billion determine she cites consists of all pandemic aid mixed, together with stimulus checks to people, help to native governments and faculties, Paycheck Safety Program loans to companies, and numerous sorts of enhanced unemployment advantages for laid-off staff.

In line with state information, the state itself obtained about $8.1 billion, which Mendoza and the Pritzker administration say was all used for one-time bills associated to the pandemic. The opposite pandemic-related revenues, in the meantime, have elevated base revenues throughout the U.S. within the two most up-to-date fiscal years.

Mendoza additionally cites as one in every of her early accomplishments the passage of the 2017 Debt Transparency Act, which lawmakers accepted over Rauner’s veto. It required state businesses to report month-to-month the quantity of payments they had been holding however had not but despatched to the comptroller’s workplace for fee. It additionally required businesses to report payments that had been greater than 90 days late and thus topic to late-payment penalties of 1 % monthly.

“And now businesses are disincentivized from holding onto these payments for a very long time, as a result of they appear to be they’re being irresponsible,” she stated. “And so now you may really see that it is uncommon to search out an company holding on to a invoice for longer than, to illustrate 60 days, as a result of we’ll know that they are doing that.”

Lawmakers took different actions throughout that point to deal with the invoice backlog. In 2017, when the backlog hit its peak, they approved issuing $6 billion in bonds, taking the whole backlog right down to about $9.1 billion. And in 2018, they approved a brand new Vendor Cost Program that allowed third-party traders to buy unpaid payments that had been owed to distributors after which accumulate the curiosity when the state finally paid the invoice.

In 2020, because the state was making progress paying down the backlog, some traders who took half in this system complained vocally when Mendoza decided to pay the principal owed on the payments, however not the curiosity penalties. A spokesman in her workplace stated in an electronic mail that the state nonetheless owes somewhat greater than $43 million in late-payment curiosity.

Mendoza stated she’d wish to see a phase-out of that program because the state’s funds stabilize.

“Hopefully, we’ll by no means ever be in a scenario the place we have to depend on these-third celebration lenders, as a result of that is what these funding firms are,” she stated. “They made an enormous quantity of revenue on the state’s dysfunction.”

Teresi earned a grasp’s diploma in accounting from Northern Illinois College and commenced her profession as an affiliate on the accounting agency PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2007. She joined McHenry County authorities in 2016 as a monetary reporting supervisor and was elected as county auditor in 2018.

This 12 months, she ran unopposed within the main as a part of a slate of candidates endorsed by GOP megadonor Ken Griffin. She has targeted a lot of her marketing campaign on the theme of rooting out corruption in state authorities.

“There hasn’t been a top-down method at addressing corruption on the state stage, and fraud, waste and abuse,” she stated.

As comptroller she stated she’d launch a statewide initiative addressing corruption, noting, “the biggest quantity of corruption and fraud is discovered primarily based on suggestions.

“And so, as your subsequent comptroller, I might be working with the inspector normal’s workplace and selling the hotline statewide tasking each taxpayer, enterprise, vendor that works with the state authorities to report fraud, waste and abuse.”

Teresi stated she was excited in regards to the GOP ticket, together with gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey, a state senator who has made a number of controversial statements similar to calling Chicago a “hellhole” and evaluating abortion in the US to the Holocaust.

“What we see is a motion with Darren Bailey’s race and the Republican Get together as a complete,” she stated, later including, “I believe there’s loads of enthusiasm. …I’m pleased to run with Darren Bailey and the entire different statewide candidates.”