It was just two months ago that Illinois passed a budget, the first new one in two years. As we described then, it included historic increases in personal income and corporate tax rates. Lawmakers overrode Governor Rauner’s veto and passed the budget into law, which was not enough to stem speculation that Illinois’s credit rating was veering dangerously close to junk status.
Earlier this month, the Illinois News Network reported that Standard & Poor’s “latest Illinois report removed the Land of Lincoln from a negative to a stable outlook” because of the budget and its $5 billion tax hike. But, with a credit rating of BBB -, “Illinois still has the lowest credit rating of all U.S. states.”