* 11:25 am - From Lee Newspapers…
Comptroller Dan Hynes says Illinois faces a $9 billion budget deficit. After a federal stimulus, it could go down to $6 billion.
Holy moly.
* 11:40 am - We have some more detail. That $6 billion figure is for the coming fiscal year, 2010, and it assumes no growth in any current state spending.
* 11:59 am - From the Sun-Times…
Illinois government is on pace to be a record $9 billion in the red by the end of the state’s budget year June 30, Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes says.
“Faced with a record $8.95 billion deficit for 2010, Illinois now stands at the precipice of the worst financial crisis in the state’s history,” a report Hynes put out this morning says. “If the recession is prolonged beyond this summer and/or revenues erode further, the state’s fiscal situation will deteriorate even more than the bleak assessment presented here.”
* 12:01 pm - Hynes says we’ll have a “carry over debt” from this fiscal year of $4.28 billion, plus $1.5 billion for spending that has not yet been appropriated.
* 12:11 pm - AP…
Hynes says Illinois will carry a deficit of more than $4 billion into the budget year that begins July 1. Then the new budget year will see its own, even larger gap.
The figures assume officials don’t increase spending except for Medicaid and pension costs that are set by law. If spending goes up elsewhere, the deficit would go up, too.
Hynes says economic-stimulus money from the federal government could reduce the gap. Even if that money comes through, state officials will still have to figure out how to fill a $6 billion hole.