Illinois’s Initial Fiscal Response to the COVID-19 Recession

Beverly S. Bunch

Municipal Finance Journal, 2020, vol. 41, issue 2, 49 - 59

Abstract: Illinois had fiscal challenges prior to COVID-19, including a structural budget deficit, large unfunded pension and OPEB liabilities, minuscule reserves, and a significant backlog of bills. The COVID-19 recession has exacerbated Illinois’s fiscal condition. This paper describes Illinois’s initial fiscal response to the COVID-19 recession as of July 2020. This includes the state’s short-term borrowing from the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility program, passage of a FY 2021 budget with a $6.5 billion deficit, and authorization for $5.0 billion in borrowing if additional federal funds and revenues from a proposed graduated income tax are not forthcoming. Under federal legislation approved as of July 2020, the state of Illinois expects to receive more than $5 billion in federal funding for COVID-related expenses. The state is using those funds to provide financial assistance to small businesses, local governments, state agencies, and other individuals and organizations.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/MFJ41020049 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/MFJ41020049 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:munifj:doi:10.1086/mfj41020049

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Municipal Finance Journal from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().