SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Comptroller Dan Hynes said today the state will miss the second general state aid payment because Illinois government is still without a budget three weeks into August.

Payments totaling more than $170 million were to be issued to school districts on Monday, the second of two such general state aid payments, totaling more than $340 million for August. The first set of payments should have been issued on Aug. 10, but could not be made because the state does not have the appropriation authority to do so.

"The clock is ticking. Schools are starting their fall semester. Every day, more and more people are suffering financial hardship because without a budget, they can't receive the payments they've been promised," Hynes said. "The Governor must act immediately to provide relief to school districts and to all of the vendors who have provided goods and services and deserve to be paid."

The Legislature finalized a fiscal 2008 budget and forwarded it to the Governor on Aug. 13. The state has been operating without spending authority since July 31, when a stop-gap, temporary budget expired. The fiscal year actually began July 1.

"The Governor's had a week to finalize the budget. He and his staff should be working round-the-clock to get it done as quickly as possible," Hynes said.

In the aggregate, hundreds of millions of dollars in payments that typically would go out in August have been delayed because of the lack of a budget. In addition to the school aid payments, worker's compensation payments of nearly $600,000, Law Enforcement training grants of $2.5 million, addiction prevention grants of $268,000, maternal and child health grants of $42,000 and highway and bridge construction and repair funds of $4.7 million, cannot be paid due to the lack of legal spending authority.