Imagine you have $100 in the checkbook and then realizing you have $7,000 in bills. Now multiply that by one million. That’s how the comptroller explained Illinois’ cash crunch now seven full months into the fiscal year without a budget.

Comptroller Leslie Munger says because of court orders and consent decrees the state is on pace to dig more than $6 billion in debt outside of the growing backlog of bills which is more than $7 billion. Munger says if a tax increase was the only fix, the income tax would have to be double -- putting it close to 8 percent for individuals, something not many people would tolerate.

Munger says there needs to be efficiencies found in every corner of government and lawmakers need to get together, stop blaming each other and find solutions.