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NEWS & COMMENTARY

Bond Investors Want Illinois to Dig Deeper

January 09, 2011

Illinois is paying about 2 percentage points more on 10-year bonds than states with top-rated credit, said bond expert Brian Battle, director at Performance Trust Capital Partners, a Chicago-based investment firm. "What is killing us are the long-term pension and health care payments, and nothing substantive has been done about that," Battle said. Unless the plan is reworked to cut the state's spending and its liabilities for pension and health care costs, bond investors will continue to insist that the state pay a risk premium, he said.