Kyle Rick is getting a little worried.
As executive director of The Arc of the Quad-Cities Area, he's used to the state of Illinois owing maybe $1 million at any given time to his large nonprofit organization, which serves people with disabilities.
"That's about a month's income for us," he said.
But the state now owes The Arc $1.5 million in human services assistance payments. Rick said the organization is "holding its own," but that could change if the state falls further behind.
"The next month could be worse, because right now, they're running out of cash," he said about the state payments. "When it starts to cross $2 million, then I need to start becoming very concerned."
That's a drop in the bucket compared with the nearly $12.5 million the state owes in overdue
payments in Rock Island County alone, according to an Associated Press database, last updated in early September.
The bulk of those delinquent bills are owed to nonprofit organizations and local schools, including $1.88 million to the Rock Island-Milan School District, shown as education grants and child nutrition program payments on the database.
The state also appears to owe $846,314 to East Moline School District 37; $371,942 to the United Township High School District; $339,570 to the Silvis School District 34; and $5,198 to the Moline-Coal Valley School District, among other school payments.
The database also shows Casa Guanajuato, a nonprofit cultural and community center in Moline, is owed about $52,000, but that's not true anymore. After receiving a check last week, the state is mostly caught up with the organization, except for about $8,500, Executive Director Michael Woods said.
"At one point, we were waiting for $95,000, but now we're paid up," he said. "Overall, we're pretty good. We're holding our own. There have been challenges with some delays, but we haven't been hurt like some folks have."
One of the state's smallest delinquent payment is for 6 cents, owed to Illinois Rep. Rich Morthland, R-Cordova.
This is an overdue interest payment, incurred from when the state owed him thousands of dollars in lodging and travel expenses for his trips to Springfield this spring, he said.
Morthland isn't particularly worried about the 6 cents owed to him, but he is concerned about the state's fiscal situation. He said that after talking to officials at Black Hawk College and Western Illinois University recently, he has learned the backlog of state payments to these schools has been cut in half.
Now, Illinois is a few months behind in its payments to these schools, rather than a year behind, he said.
"Illinois has been terribly behind. It's been woefully behind for a long time," Morthland said. "It is a problem, but I think we're closing the gap."
He said Illinois is "a very heavily taxed state," and the government has overspent. The economy's collapse didn't help matters, either, he said.
The good news is lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are committed to pulling back on that overspending, he said, giving Speaker of the House Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, full credit for leading the effort.
#Source: The Quad-City Times, by Kay Luna
Read more: http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/quad-city-agencies-roll-with-late-payments/article_d8a679be-f7af-11e0-b94d-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1axkbNp2C
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