When rolling out his $45.5 billion fiscal year 2023 budget, Gov. J.B. Pritzker painted his pitch as the latest step in reversing the “true fiscal wreckage left over for us to clean up” when he took over from Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner following the 2018 elections. 

The $3.2 billion deficit he came in with? It’s now a $1.7 billion surplus.

After experiencing eight credit downgrades from 2015 to 2017, the state got two upgrades last summer, plus one outlook improvement. 

The $7.9 billion bill backlog and $1.2 billion in late payment penalties with past-due bills languishing for more than a year? It’s been paid off, with the backlog now standing at $2.9 billion, according to Comptroller Susana Mendoza, with bills sitting for an average of only 15 days. She’s now making the case to ratings agencies for another bump. 

MORE: Comptroller Mendoza urges rating firms to bump up Illinois’ credit

As for the COVID crash, the state paid back the $3.2 billion it borrowed from the Federal Reserve’s Municipal Liquidity Facility early, saving on interest costs. Tax receipts have rebounded. Pritzker proposal—which still has to make it through negotiations with the General Assembly—would make extra pension contributions and socking away millions in the state’s rainy day fund. 

Springfield Republicans and those who hope to take on Pritzker in the November election were less optimistic, describing the governor’s proposal—which includes a property tax rebate and a one-year break on certain grocery and gas taxes—as a gimmick that fails to tackle the state’s structural issues.

So can the governor reasonably hang his hat on a strong fiscal record? One independent watchdog suggests he can. 

“The state’s financial position today is dramatically better than it was when Governor Pritzker took office, and this proposed budget shows significant fiscal discipline, significant improvement of the state’s condition,” Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, says on the latest episode of the A.D. Q&A podcast. The Civic Federation is a non-partisan organization, so don’t expect an endorsement any time soon.

In this episode, Msall gives a budget primer, including why the skies are not all clear, "but we are far better than we were three years ago. We are dramatically better than we were when the pandemic started. . . .The governor’s use of the federal revenue support has been effective and fiscally reasonable, and it has helped improve the state’s financial condition, as has the growth in revenue. . . .There’s a lot of positives in this budget."

Msall, who worked under Govs. Jim Thompson and George Ryan, offers some caveats. Listen for his take on what Pritzker has yet to tackle: broader property tax reform, transparency around its infrastructure projects, and the old standbys: pensions, debt and government consolidation. 

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