Illinois Auditor General Frank Mautino’s campaign spending case is set to be before the State Board of Elections on Monday, when officials could decide whether the top watchdog should be fined.

A hearing officer has recommended the board fine Mautino for failing to provide information about spending by his now-defunct campaign committee.

As you read this, it’s May 15, which leaves 16 days until the General Assembly’s constitutional deadline for action.

Illinois hasn’t had a comprehensive budget in two years. It hasn’t spent or invested a penny in higher education since Dec. 31. It no longer funds Catholic Charities, Lutheran Social Services and other charitable organizations that, on behalf of the state, assist the disabled, elderly and downtrodden.

Serving as the emcee during Democrat Day at last year’s Illinois State Fair, state Rep. Lou Lang introduced Attorney General Lisa Madigan as someone who has served in the job “for many, many years.”

She took the gentle ribbing in stride.

Unemployment is an important measure of an economy’s health, but it is only part of the picture. Those who have given up on ever finding a job is a hidden, truer measure.

That number is improving across the nation. One in three of the jobless Americans have given up looking for work this year compared to two out of five last year.

For the second Mother’s Day in as many years, Cook County Jail has been placed on lockdown after 32 percent of workers on the day shift did not show up for work Sunday.

Of the workers assigned to the 7 a.m.-3 p.m. shift, 206 failed to show up to work, said Cara Smith, a spokeswoman for the sheriff.

Because the University of Illinois and the other state universities need state appropriations to fully fund their operations, some of those schools are seeing their credit ratings sink to junk-bond status.

It’s like the boy who joined his friends skipping school.

He knew he was in with the wrong crowd and would get caught.