Illinois ended the first half of its fiscal year with a checkbook balance of $99 million, the fifth straight month the state`s balance has been below the $200 million warning zone, but the state`s budget chief said the administration`s spending plan is ”pretty much on target.”
Comptroller Roland Burris said Tuesday that the calendar year-end balance was the second lowest in the last 10 years and marked the third consecutive month that the balance had dipped below $100 million at month`s end.
Robert Mandeville, Gov. James Thompson`s budget director, admitted that the balance at the end of December was $29 million below projections, but he said that $57 million in special education payments to school districts was paid Dec. 31. For the last eight years, he said, that payment had not been processed until January.
Mandeville said revenues were $74 million above projections.
