State Lawmakers Consider How To Spend COVID-19 Relief Funds
March 18, 2021 12:00PM CDT

(Justin L. Fowler/The State Journal-Register via AP, Pool)
Illinois lawmakers are considering how to spend the latest round of COVID-19 relief funds. Aides to Comptroller Susana Mendoza say her office plans to use the seven-point-five-billion to pay down old debts or repay money the state borrowed from the U.S. Federal Reserve. The state owes nearly three-billion to the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Fund and has nearly five-point-five-billion in unpaid bills. Senate Majority Leader Bill Cunningham says the General Assembly has the authority to decide appropriations. A spokeswoman for Governor J.B. Pritzker’s administration says his budget office had broad discretion over how to use the federal funds.