Originally published on May 5, 2021 11:51 pm
Illinois’ economy was humming along last winter, a few years removed from the state’s two-year budget impasse in which Illinois’ unpaid bill backlog climbed to nearly $17 billion, and finally experiencing the kind of growth that had eluded the state for years after the Great Recession.
But then COVID-19 hit. Gov. JB Pritzker ordered bars and restaurants closed a few days after the World Health Organization declared the virus a global pandemic, and then a broader stay-at-home order from the governor a week later shuttered dozens of other types of businesses throughout the state.
Listen