The state of Illinois has sold $4.5 billion in general obligation bonds to pay down a portion of the roughly $15 billion backlog of unpaid bills.
Officials say the proceeds for Wednesday’s bond sale and those from the last week’s $1.5 billion general obligation bond sale will be used to help cut the backlog approximately in half by June 2018.
The state locked in an interest rate of 3.5 percent on bond issues.
According to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office, the state will return to the capital markets later this year with a $750 million general obligation bond issue for 2018 capital projects.
