Illinois Retail Merchants' Association President and CEO Rob Karr said there are consequences beyond increased interest costs if the debt isn’t paid off. “Certainly higher costs for employers, initially you would see some sort of benefit cuts for employees as well. And under federal rules, the longer that debt is in place, the higher the employer taxes will go.”
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.