Study Slams Illinois State Finances and Debt

For years, Illinois has racked up billions in public debt to plug budget holes, pay overdue bills, and put billions into its mismanaged pension funds. And for the people who live there, this has resulted in decrepit commuter trains and buses, thousands of unsound bridges, 200 hazardous dams and one of the most inequitable public school systems in America.

Those are the conclusions of a new examination of Illinois finances by the State Budget Crisis Task Force, which was released Wednesday.

The group, led by the former Federal Reserve chairman, Paul A. Volcker, and the former New York lieutenant governor, Richard Ravitch, recommended a thorough overhaul of Illinois’ budgeting practices, to make it harder to kite money from year to year and warned that tax increases might be in store.

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