Illinois’ rainy-day fund, emergency reserves lowest in country

With barely two weeks of reserves in its rainy day fund, new data from Pew Research shows Illinois now ranks last among all 50 states in its ability to withstand a financial crisis.

Illinois state Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, wonders when state lawmakers will get out of their own way when it comes to fiscally steering the state in the right direction.

“We've been clearing out our own tax base and we aren't growing as an economy,” Ugaste told The Center Square. “We aren't growing our business base as we should. If there's any growth at all, we're lagging the rest of the nation. We should be well ahead of where we are. We'd have more revenue coming in that way with less taxation on each individual and each business.”

As it is, data shows Illinois barely has just two weeks of reserves in its rainy-day fund and the state also has less funding to pay its own bills than any other at just 28 days of reserves. With the state’s total fund balances also ranking last and the state being the only one in the country with less than 30 days’ worth of total reserve balances on hand, Ugaste warned Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s 2026 budget plan, with all its proposed spending increases, stands to do little to help the situation.

“We lower taxation, pull back on business regulation and lower our litigation costs, business and people are back flocking to Illinois,” he added. “If we don't do those things, we're just going to keep heading down this terrible path and we'll probably have to use up that small rainy day fund just to meet the expenses that the supermajority Democrats keep putting on us.”

Ugaste said he’s still not sure Democrats have finally gotten the message, at least in the same way he’s come to view it.

“I heard one say the other day that we haven't tapped all the tax base we could yet, that there's still more money out there that we could bring in through taxes on people and businesses,” he said. “That mentality just doesn't work. That's why we're not getting businesses. That's why we've declined.”

Illinois’ rainy-day fund currently has a balance of $2.2 billion. Officials from the Government Finance Officers Association recommend the state in 2026 have at least $9.2 billion in reserve to be able to cover a minimum of 60 days.