A bill the Illinois Senate could soon take up may make some state employees, vendors and, service providers owed money happy.
Senator Sam McCann says a bill he introduced Wednesday would take an unexpected revenue windfall the state received last month and direct all of it to some long-standing obligations.
“They’ve earned their pay, they worked hard, they deserve it. We have many vendors and thier employees who have done everything they were ever supposed to do and earned payment” says McCann.
McCann says the so-called “April Surprise” of more than $1-billion is not necessarily something the state can count on every quarter. Sales tax and income tax revenues in the state jumped but he says it is too early to call it a trend.
He says much of the temporary income tax was to be used to pay back wages and he says that money was diverted elsewhere.