Illinois ranks low in fiscal transparency

Watchdog group Truth in Accounting has issued a report that ranks Illinois among the least fiscally-transparent states in the nation.

Illinois has been ranked ninth-worst, with the state’s score negatively affected by such factors as the late delivery of its annual documents, a failure to have an external auditor look at the numbers, and a distorted net financial position due to misleading and confusing information on its report.

The Truth in Accounting group measures each state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and issues scores based on eight criteria: accessibility, searchability, if the states used an outside auditor, the auditor’s opinion, timeliness of the report, percentage of off-balance sheet liabilities, pension data timing, and deferred items.

Idaho, North Dakota and Nevada were ranked at the top of the report, while Connecticut was ranked 50th.

Steve McClure

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