With Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s first budget speech less than two weeks away, the Pritzker administration said the state’s financial problems are worse than expected.

 

In a report released Friday, former comptroller and now deputy governor Dan Hynes said the state’s budget deficit next year will hit $3.2 billion unless steps are taken to bring it under control.

 

The administration said the deficit is 16 percent higher than what former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration projected in a report it released in November.

 

“We’ve had several weeks now to work with the agencies to look through their financials and really do an assessment of the damage done by the previous administration,” Hynes said in an interview. “It’s worse than we thought both in terms of the scope and size of the deficit facing us (next year), but also the amount of unpaid bills left on our desk.”

 

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