Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/global-credit-crunch-takes-toll-on-state-economies Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript Wall Street's credit freeze sparked a global economic crisis and forced U.S. cities and states to tighten their budgets. Elizabeth Brackett reports from Illinois about the state's financial woes then Chris Hoene of the National League of Cities explains the national downturn. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. BEN D’ANDREA, Neptune Construction: Initially, when I went into the bank and started talking to the bank about renewing our lines of credit, they had felt it wouldn't be a problem. This was early in the year.As the year went on, the bank philosophy changed. They had started looking at our documentation more closely. They had started reviewing cash flow closer. And when it finally came down to it, they said, "Sorry, we can't help you." ELIZABETH BRACKETT: One of the reasons Neptune needed to expand its credit was to pay bills while waiting to get paid for services rendered. Neptune installed water and sewer lines in this subdivision west of Chicago in a $2 million project for the state. Though the project was completed last month, Neptune has received only half of what it was owed. BEN D’ANDREA: I don't know the reasons why they were delayed, but it definitely added pressure to the cash flow, which, again, was one of the contributing factors to us closing the doors. ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Illinois state Comptroller Dan Hynes acknowledges the state has $1.8 billion in bills that it can't pay. Nearly $400 million is owed to groups that provide Medicaid services.Hynes says the government will eventually pay its bills, but on a much slower basis than in the past.Illinois is not alone. At least 12 other states are also in jeopardy of not paying the bills.DAN HYNES, Illinois state comptroller: This is the worst we've seen. And I think what's even scarier is that, you know, all the signs are pointing in the wrong direction in terms of what we can expect for the remainder of the fiscal year.ALEXI GIANNOULIAS, Illinois state treasurer: We did worst-case scenarios, and we are pretty much at that line now, where we are as bad as we could ever have imagined.