Illinois will end the year with overdue bills totaling $7.6 billion.
Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s office says the amount is about 16 percent less than the $9 billion owed at the end of 2012. Spokesman Brad Hahn says it’s unclear how the pension-reform package adopted this month will affect the backlog.
Hahn says the backlog benefited this year from $1.3 billion in tax revenues that officials didn’t expect. Topinka’s office had predicted as late as a month ago that the year-end backlog would be closer to $9 billion.