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State Agencies Glad for Paid Bills but Worry About a Repeat of Late Payments
(IRN)-Human services agencies are grateful that state government is finally paying for last year's services, but they worry that the same scenario will play out again this year.

About $1.2 billion in backlogged bills has already been sent out. The money borrowed with tobacco fund money is going toward state government bills from Fiscal Year 2010, which ended in June. That means those bills are at least 5½ months old.

While that's good news for human services agencies, those agencies are still worried about the new bills that are racking up. Don Moss of the Illinois Human Services Coalition calls this money "a band-aid." Moss says while this money will help local agencies, which according to one study have laid off about 50,000 workers, Moss says there's no way those agencies will be able to hire back those workers because they may have found other jobs or moved away. He also says those agencies are up to five months behind in this fiscal year's payments.

That'll be an even bigger problem, according to the Illinois comptroller's office. Spokeswoman Carol Knowles says the state is already $5.3 billion behind in paying bills, and that number is growing every day. She says the biggest chunk of the Fiscal Year 2010 bills were paid starting late Wednesday night.

(Source: Illinois Radio Network)
12 10 10 by Newsroom
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