State of Illinois

Fiscal 2020 added another $3.8 billion to the state's unfunded pension liabilities, according to a new state report.

The state attorney general is asking the court to clarify the legal standard for denying taxpayer actions and decide if the state constitution limits GO borrowing to capital purposes.

Illinois will borrow $2 billion through the Federal Reserve's Municipal Liquidity Facility to help manage its 2021 budget gap. The state previously borrowed $1.2 billion from the MLF for its fiscal 2020 pandemic hole.

The state's backlog of unpaid bills will grow to $35 billion by 2026 if it doesn't make any structural budget fixes, according to a new forecast.

Illinois General Assembly leaders canceled the annual veto session amid rising COVID-19 cases, which means lawmakers won't act on the state budget before January.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker says preservation of the investment-grade status is "very important;" Illinois bonds traded wider after the income tax referendum failed.

The defeat of Gov. J.B. Pritzker's "Fair Tax" strikes down a pillar of his plan for the state's wobbly finances and increases risk to the state's bond ratings.

The fate of the state budget and ratings may depend on the progressive income tax ballot measure. Midwest voters also face $2.3 billion of bond measures Tuesday.

The current deal deluge is causing a minor yield pullback, but levels have been steadier than many probably thought, trader said.

Favorable sale results compared to recent secondary trading levels prompted MMD to narrow Illinois' spreads on average by 10-30 basis points across the curve with the short-end seeing the biggest improvement.

Municipals weakened as supply surged into the market, with AAA yields up by as much two basis points on longer-dated maturities.

Cameron Mock, chief of staff and senior fiscal advisor to the deputy governor of Illinois, Melissa Dubowski, deputy finance director of the city of Houston and John Markowitz, assistant treasurer of Transurban, join Innovation Editor Lynne Funk to discuss their day-to-day work navigating COVID-19 effects, budget stresses and the future of public finance post-pandemic. (25 minutes).

The coronavirus pandemic took its toll on Hawaii's credit rating Monday as Fitch cuts the Aloha State's GOs to AA. NYC TFA announces $1.1B sale for next week.

Tough decisions on spending and taxes lay ahead if Illinois voters reject a progressive income tax structure and federal coronavirus relief fails to pan out.

Chief of Staff for Deputy Governor, State of Illinois

The market will digest the once-again largest amount of new issues in 2020, including some higher-grade state GOs that have been quiet of late. Some participants said a back-up in rates could occur after a mostly quiet week.

Moody's followed S&P in issuing a shot across the bow on coronavirus-driven threats to Illinois' ratings that are one cut away from junk.

New revenue from a graduated tax without an accompanying long-term plan to tackle the state's fiscal woes won't solve them, the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago warns.

S&P issued a bulletin Monday warning that pressure is mounting on Illinois' BBB-minus rating —the lowest investment grade — as federal relief remains stalled.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker warns of thousands of layoffs across illinois governments and a $1 billion hit to education funding if the federal government does provide relief.