Comptroller Susana Mendoza: "Things are moving in the right direction"
Comptroller Susana Mendoza celebrates after taking the oath for a second full term last week in Springfield.
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This is Susana Mendoza’s speed, as she’s sitting at a diner on Chicago’s northwest side Tuesday, sipping a glass of orange juice and talking about Illinois’ checkbook with as much enthusiasm as a parent who just had a kid accepted to Harvard.
The newly re-elected State Comptroller, who received the highest number of votes of any candidate in the state in November (receiving about 78,000 more votes than Governor JB Pritzker), called her electoral performance an issue of trust from voters.
“Let’s be honest, Comptroller is the most obscure title in all state government,” Mendoza said as we sat down for more than an hour Tuesday. “But it means to me that the people who showed up to vote knew who they were voting for and they specifically sought me out on the ballot to vote for me. I think it also shows I didn’t only receive Democratic votes, but votes across the aisle, which means a lot to me as well.”
Mendoza has been credited with reducing the state’s bill backlog from over $16 billion during the Rauner administration to under $1.3 billion today. Getting bills paid on time has saved taxpayers on late payment interest. In FY22, late payment interest cost the state around $14 million. Halfway through FY23, late payment charges are around $300,000.
But Mendoza has been criticized by some on the right for only balancing budgets (which the legislature does) and lowering bill payment cycles with the help of $8 billion in pandemic relief dollars from the federal government.
“It’s just not true,” she said. “They’re either completely mistaken, there’s something wrong [in their thinking] that doesn’t connect or they’re purposely misleading people.”
Mendoza notes that by prioritizing payments in Medicaid reimbursement, which has a higher match from the federal government, a bond deal in 2017, along with increased revenue from the income tax increase passed later that year reduced the backlog from $16 billion to $3 billion before the pandemic even hit in 2020. Further, she said, stipulations on the federal bailouts didn’t allow pandemic dollars to pay General Revenue Fund bills.
After years of fiscal mismanagement by both parties, Mendoza understands people are skeptical when there is improvement in the state’s fiscal footing or even remain sour on the economic situation. But she says some are unwilling to see facts.
“They say it doesn’t matter that we have six credit upgrades because we’re still in last place,” she said, noting that the state’s bond rating is still last among the 50 states. “Sure, that’s true, we’re still at the bottom, but we’re climbing our way up. And that’s important to recognize. Things are moving in the right direction and that’s a good thing.”
The day before she was sworn in to her second full term last week, the legislature approved additional money to the state’s rainy day fund, which will now be close to $2 billion for a fund that had dwindled to around $60,000 during the Rauner administration.
“I don’t want to tell you that it’s everything, but it is such a big part of the equation. I can’t understate the importance,” she said. “$1 billion is not even a week’s worth of reserves for the state of Illinois. If you care about your kid’s education, if you care about police and fire, if you care about roads and bridges, those things cost money. That’s why we pay taxes. If there were another devastating collapse of our economy, through no fault of our own, we would have to recover from it.”
Mendoza points to the economic collapse nationwide after 9/11 and in the 2008 housing crisis as two incidents that “blew a hole” in the state’s budget. She said the 2008 crisis was even more painful for the state financially than the COVID pandemic because of the federal dollars that came in to support the state.
As part of the same bill, the legislature snuck in pay raises for themselves and constitutional officers, including Mendoza, during the lame duck session. While Mendoza wouldn’t say whether including pay raises was the right or wrong thing to do, she credited the General Assembly for putting the issue to a vote, citing the Supreme Court case brought by two former lawmakers who attempted to get backpay from the state after voting against cost of living adjustments.
“If people think I don’t deserve the raise, then they shouldn’t vote for me,” she said, even though the vote came two months after she faced voters in an election. “I’m going to work very hard everyday of my life to earn it and far exceed the investment that they make in me. And legislators are going to have to work hard to earn that. And if they don’t, they should be voted out.”
One thing Mendoza isn’t particularly concerned about is the state’s economic outlook. With inflation still high and revenues expected to drop off at some point, she doesn’t see it as a catastrophic event for Illinois.
“I would say that short of another horrific crisis that’s no fault of our own, I only look at that as a positive thing,” she said. “I’ve only managed us through crisis and we still have come out on top. If we can be in this position right now, a little blip in the economy or a little recession, it’s not something that scares me.”
Mendoza ran for Chicago Mayor in 2019, but isn’t weighing in on the race at this point. As for her political future, Mendoza would only say “I love my job.” But as the highest ranking Latina elected official in the state, Mendoza’s name will surely be mentioned for higher office in the coming years.
