Susana Mendoza

A federal judge in Puerto Rico last week told a politically connected former state contractor that if he wants to sue for defamation against the people who’ve accused him of defrauding the state of Illinois, he’ll have to do so in an Illinois courtroom.

The annual process of negotiating the state budget kicked off Wednesday with Gov. JB Pritzker proposing a $52.7 billion spending plan that includes hundreds of millions of dollars in new spending and tax increases, particularly for businesses

Alongside those diet and fitness resolutions, households should consider kicking off 2024 with a solid fiscal plan, Illinois Comptroller Susan Mendoza advises.

The $50.7 billion in base general revenues that Illinois collected in fiscal year 2023 – which exclude one-time pandemic-related federal funds – topped last year’s previous record by $373 million.

There are no champagne toasts or fireworks, but when the clock strikes 12 a.m. on Saturday, it’s the start of a new year in Illinois – a new fiscal year, that is.

While hundreds of bills cleared the General Assembly in the final month of the legislative session, some big-ticket measures will have to wait until at least the fall.

The state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability has decreased its current-year budget forecast by $728 million, erasing much of a once-predicted surplus that had led Gov. JB Pritzker to float the idea of tax cuts earlier this spring.

A bill that would trigger automatic payments into the state’s so-called “rainy day” fund is heading to the Illinois House for consideration after unanimous passage out of committee this week.

Illinois' “rainy day” fund – spent down to essentially nothing during the 2015-2017 budget impasse – now has its highest-ever balance of $750 million after a $320 million deposit this week.

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is pushing legislation that would require the state to make automatic deposits into its so-called “rainy day fund” whenever certain financial conditions are met

Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is calling for repealing a law that imposes a 12 percent interest whenever the state is late paying its bills, along with a program that allows private investors to purchase the debt owed to vendors and collect that interest penalty

Comptroller Susana Mendoza said she expects the state’s credit rating to improve and the remaining bill backlog reduced under Gov. JB Pritzker’s $45.4 billion proposed budget.

“Illinois needs a Comptroller with real financial experience, not a career politician controlled by the special interests,” McHenry County Auditor Shannon Teresi said in a statement.

Illinois state Comptroller Susana Mendoza is among eight state financial officers urging the Treasury Department to reinstate interest-payment waivers on tens of billions of dollars loaned to states for unemployment rolls that exploded at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic

A former state lawmaker is suing the state comptroller for salary increases he claims he was entitled to while serving in the Illinois General Assembly for 12 years, even though he voted against those raises as a lawmaker.