Tuesday, April 27, 2010

State budget crisis hitting local businesses' bottom line

More than two-thirds of local businesses say state budget problems and late payments have hurt their bottom line.

A spring economic survey by the University of Illinois Springfield also found that business owners believe chronic financial problems at the state will remain a major challenge in the coming year.

Nonetheless, the survey also found that local business owners are in a somewhat better mood than last fall, though they expect the economic recovery to be slow.

More than a quarter expect at least some business growth this year, up 4 percentage points from a September survey. Nearly three-fourths expect the economy to stay about the same or to continue its decline.

“Things are looking better, but they are not real confident yet,” said Patty Byrnes with the Center for State Policy and Leadership at UIS.

The survey was featured in a April 27, 2010, article in the State Journal-Register.

Download a PDF of the article:
20100427-SJR-State-budget-crisis.pdf