Even if Illinois lawmakers reach a compromise soon, it's too late to help improve the state's credit rating, it's already the lowest rated state in the nation.
Illinois will soon reach its six month without a budget, that's halfway through the fiscal year. There's no sign that'll change anytime soon. But say it does, Moody's Investors Service says that won't immediately bring up Illinois' score.
"And that means at best they'll have 5 or six months to implement whatever they decide to implement. So that makes it a very steep climb for them to fix the current year's roughly $5 billion problem."
Moody's analyst Ted Hampton.
"So we're therefore not really expecting some sort of rabbit being pulled out of the hat here. We're expecting that this process may drag on a little bit, and the solution, whatever it is, will be piecemeal and will leave the state, at least for the remainder of the current fiscal year, with its finances deteriorating."
Moody's also sent notice that it's conceivable Illinois could reach "junk" bond status.
