* Monday…

Comptroller Susana Mendoza said in a report obtained by The Associated Press Monday that Illinois has run up late-pay fees of $1.14 billion since mid-2015. That’s $100 million more than in the previous 18 years combined.

* Gov. Rauner today…

Right now there’s a bunch of baloney – that’s a nice word for it – from our comptroller, saying somehow our administration is responsible for interest, for unpaid bills for decades [laughs]. That is the most ridiculous, most preposterous statement.

And our comptroller was in the General Assembly for years under Mike Madigan. She voted for the deficits that have created the unpaid bills. She voted to support Blagojevich’s pension holiday that created huge liabilities that we’re funding now.

She created the problem, and now she’s, she puts out a memo and says, ‘Oh it’s the Governor’s fault.’ Are you kidding me?

We gotta get real here, ladies and gentlemen. There’s rascals and scoundrels who are misrepresenting the truth, and who are really responsible, and they’re trying to brush off that responsibility.

Mendoza did, indeed, vote for that Blagojevich pension holiday, which cost the state dearly (click here for the oppo).

But Rauner did, indeed, run up the bill backlog more in three years than in the previous 18 years combined. That’s what Mendoza was saying. She didn’t claim Rauner was “responsible for interest, for unpaid bills for decades,” so it was preposterous to claim such a thing today.

In other words, he muffed the hit.

* Meanwhile, the governor said this twice today when asked about Sen. Sam McCann’s candidacy…

McCann is a pawn. He’s being used by Pritzker and Madigan. And we’re gonna win in November.

I’m betting he’ll say that a lot in the coming months.

*** UPDATE 1 *** Comptroller Susana Mendoza…

“Rauner lies. The numbers don’t. The truth hurts. The truth is, it took Governor Rauner only 2 ½ years to do more damage to Illinois’ finances than all the Democratic and Republican administrations and legislatures over the previous 18 years combined.”

*** UPDATE 2 *** Pritzker campaign…

After returning from an 11-day “jobs mission” with no job announcements, Bruce Rauner spiraled out of control when asked about his confrontational rhetoric at a press conference this morning.

Rauner failed to explain why he says Illinois is in a “death spiral” while trying to attract jobs and doubled down on calling legislators “rascals” as budget negotiations continue in Springfield. Rauner even desperately attacked Comptroller Susana Mendoza for publishing “baloney” numbers on the over $1 billion in late fees and interest penalties he’s racked up, calling her and legislators “rascals and scoundrels who are misrepresenting the truth.”

“Today, a failed governor returned from a failed trip to give a failed press conference, lashing out at the press, the Comptroller, and the General Assembly,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “Instead of lying, Bruce Rauner should try looking in the mirror before slandering his coequal branch of government as ‘rascals and scoundrels.’”