Illinois Ending Exile From Bond Market Amid Record Budget Fight
- State preps $480 million G.O. sale, the first since 2014
- As gridlock weighs on finances, investors demand extra yield
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As Illinois prepares its first bond sale in almost two years, investors say the worst-rated state in America will pay for leaving its fiscal house in a shambles.
Since it last sold general-obligation bonds in April 2014, the Illinois Supreme Court threw out the state’s effort to cut workers’ benefits to help close a $111 billion pension-fund deficit. Its credit rating has been cut. And temporary tax increases have expired, leaving Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democratic lawmakers locked in a record-long impasse that’s left the state without a budget for more than six months.