SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Steve Stadelman (D-Rockford) and his colleagues on the Senate Appropriations II Committee heard testimony from several state offices today regarding the current backlog of bills weighing down Illinois' budget. It is estimated that Comptroller Judy Barr Topinka's office has more than $7 billion in backlog bills in her office, and that figure does not include the estimated $2.5 billion state agencies have not yet sent to be processed.

Stadelman released the following statement after the hearing:

"It is upsetting to know that there are businesses and organizations across the Rock River Valley that provided services in good faith for the state of Illinois, and they are now being asked to wait months to be paid for their work. Our schools are waiting six months to get the funding they need to operate, and that is just not acceptable. No business of any size can sustain this. As a new legislator, I'm not sure how we got into this mess, but I will be focusing on finding a reasonable solution to get us out of it."