Macon Reporter

Illinois state Rep. Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) has cautioned voters in the Prairie State not to believe Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who is seeking reelection in November. Halbrook issued his warning in a Facebook post this week. 

"Don't Believe Pritzker's Lies," he said in the post.

In the post, Halbrook also shared a link to a recent Forbes article that said 31 states in the country do not have enough money to pay their bills. The article noted that it was actually an improvement from both 2018 and 2021 when 40 and 39 states, respectively, didn't have the cashflow to pay expenses. Sheila Weinberg, CEO of Truth in Accounting, told Forbes the apparent improvement was a result of "temporary record gains in the stock market during that time and the Covid-relief money. Governors are claiming surpluses, while financial reports and retirement plan numbers indicate their state is in deep debt."

Truth in Accounting's "Financial State of the States" report looked at Illinois' finances and noted that there was at least a small improvement in 2021, which the accounting watchdog said was "mostly due to a great deal of federal aid and dramatic increases in the value of pension system assets." TIA pointed out that the state was still lacking $210.5 billion it needed to pay bills that had already accumulated and therefore gave Illinois an "F" grade for it's financial problems. 

TIA noted that Illinois' financial issues are mostly a result of "unfunded retirement obligations." With regard to promised retiree health care benefits, the state had only set aside 45 cents for every dollar promised. Should nothing change, the burden would fall on the state's taxpayers.