Illinois' comptroller is cheering a proposal to add more money to the state's Rainy Day Fund.
Governor JB Pritzker is asking lawmakers to use any budget surplus to pay down bonding debt, refund the Unemployment Insurance Trust fund, and shore up the state's Rainy Day Fund.
Recent projections from the Governor's Office of Management and Budget show strong income and sales tax receipts - and the potential for more than a billion dollar surplus this fiscal year.
Comptroller Susana Mendoza says using those surplus funds to pay down debt and save for downturns is the right thing to do.
"We need to do a better job of shoring up our Rainy Day Fund. We now have about a billion, 47-million in it, but I'm not really going to feel comfortable until we're close to three-and-a-quarter billion."
Mendoza would also like lawmakers to consider legislation that would require surplus funds to go into the Rainy Day Fund and then to pay down the state's unfunded pension liability.
Lawmakers will conclude their Veto Session after Thanksgiving.
