Illinois has reduced its bill backlog to just under $4 billion — a far cry from the nearly $17 billion high seen just after the state’s two-year budget impasse presided over by former Gov. Bruce Rauner.

But the state’s top financial officer, Comptroller Susana Mendoza, said now is not the time to become complacent.

Illinois House and Senate Republicans gathered outside of Governor JB Pritzker’s office Wednesday demanding a bipartisan map. They continue to claim that Democrats are pushing a partisan redistricting process through Springfield.

GOP lawmakers criticized Democrats last week for meeting behind closed doors to work on their map. When Pritzker ran for Governor in 2018, he promised to veto any partisan drawn map.

Only days after expressing concerns about the safety of unlocking office doors at the Illinois Department of Employment Security, Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday confirmed a timeline for reopening that CBS 2 first reported two months ago.

“The IDES offices will be opening during the summer,” Pritzker said.

Unemployed Illinoisans will keep receiving an extra $300 in pandemic-enhanced weekly benefits, Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday, even as Republican-led states around the nation move to end those benefits early, claiming they’re disincentivizing working-age people from getting jobs.

“Our job here is to make sure we’re creating jobs and helping people to rebuild the lives they had before the pandemic, and so we’re not going to pull the rug out from under people,” Pritzker told reporters at an unrelated event Wednesday.

An audit of the Illinois Housing Authority shows hundreds of thousands of dollars missing from several counties.

A group of 10 Central Illinois clerks including Tazewell County’s John Ackerman are expressing concerns with the state’s financial reporting.