(The Center Square) – A new Truth in Accounting report pegs Illinois as being dead last among all 50 states when it comes to financial transparency.
The Transparency Score Report assesses each state based on such criteria as audit quality, clarity of retirement liabilities and how clearly finances are presented free of distortion. Researchers found Illinois’ standing is further hampered by its delay in publishing its fiscal year 2023 Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports, which offers the most accurate view of a state’s financial outlook.
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“Illinois is chronically late on issuing its financial report,” Truth in Accounting founder and CEO Sheila Weinberg told The Center Square. “It’s past June 30, 2024, and their June 2023 financial report still has not been issued. They made budget decisions without taking into consideration the important information in this and their audited financial reports. Either, you know, they can’t get the audit done on time or the comptroller’s office can’t accumulate all the data on time. Something dysfunctional there is going on.”
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza’s office has released an interim 2023 report.
“The Comptroller cannot issue the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report until the Auditor General has completed their audit,” the Comptroller’s website said. “The audit for Fiscal Year 2023 has not been completed yet by the Auditor General. For the sake of transparency, the Comptroller has issued an Interim Report while awaiting the completed audit.”
While no states received a top score of 100 for most transparent financial reporting, Weinberg said it’s easy to see why Illinois lands where it does in the study. The state’s 2022 report also came with a disclaimer of opinion, meaning auditors were unable to provide assurance that the financial statements were free of material misstatement.
“Illinois is the poster child for bad budgeting and accounting,” she said. “They use massive budgeting gimmicks to claim that their budgets balanced when it really is not and they do not pay what their actuaries say they should pay into their pension plans. The governor’s claiming he’s balancing the budget while he’s shorting the pension plans by $5 billion a year.”
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Weinberg feared conditions for taxpayers may get worse before they get better.
“They will continue to have to raise taxes. The pension benefits will continue to start to crowd out more and more of the basic services and benefits,” she said. “Taxpayers will have to pay more than $37,000 in the future to pay for bills that have already been incurred to date and they will not receive any government services or benefits in relation to those taxes.”