The Comptroller of Illinois is a constitutional officer in the executive branch of government of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. Ten individuals have held the office of Comptroller since the enactment of the Illinois Constitution of 1970, replacing the prior office of Auditor of Public Accounts that was first created in 1799. The incumbent is

Susana Mendoza Susana A. Mendoza is an American politician. She is the 10th Comptroller of Illinois, serving since December 2016. A member of the Democratic Party, she formerly served as Chicago City Clerk and as an Illinois State Representative, representing t ...

, a Democrat.

Eligibility and term of office

The Comptroller is elected for a renewable four-year term during the quadrennial mid-term election. The Illinois Constitution provides that the Comptroller must, at the time of his or her election, be a United States citizen, at least 25 years old, and a resident of the state for at least 3 years preceding the election.

Powers and duties

Article V, Section 17 of the Constitution of Illinois says the Comptroller: "shall maintain the State's central fiscal accounts, and order payments into and out of the funds held by the

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury ...

."Article V, Section 17
"Constitution of Illinois", accessed March 2, 2022. In accordance with this mandate, the Comptroller is designated by law as the state's chief fiscal control officer and is responsible for the legal, efficient, and effective operations of state government.
What Is A Comptroller?, accessed February 4, 2022. As such, the Comptroller keeps and adjusts the statewide accounting system, signs

paycheck A paycheck, also spelled paycheque, pay check or pay cheque, is traditionally a paper document (a cheque) issued by an employer to pay an employee for services rendered. In recent times, the physical paycheck has been increasingly replaced by e ...

s or grants approval to

electronic payment An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become incr ...

s made by the state to its employees and creditors, monitors cash flow, prepares the state's annual comprehensive financial report, and provides monthly debt transparency reports to the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of pres ...

.
What Is A Comptroller, accessed February 4, 2022. The Comptroller is also charged by statute with certain additional duties. In particular, the Comptroller supervises local government finances in Illinois, including reviewing local government financial data, investigating instances of waste and fraud in local governments, and publishing an annual report summarizing the revenues, expenditures, fund balance, and debt of units of local government throughout the state. Moreover, the Comptroller regulates cemetery, cemeteries under the Cemetery Care Act, and is charged with the fiduciary protection of cemetery care funds used for the care and maintenance of Illinois gravesites.760 ILCS 100/1 et seq.
"Illinois Compiled Statutes", accessed April 12, 2008. Aside from his or her regular responsibilities, the Comptroller is fourth (behind the

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, and Secretary of State, respectively) in the

line of succession An order of succession or right of succession is the line of individuals necessitated to hold a high office when it becomes vacated such as head of state or an honour such as a title of nobility.Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

Recent history

The late

Judy Baar Topinka Judy Baar Topinka (January 16, 1944 – December 10, 2014) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party from the U.S. State of Illinois. Originally a journalist, Topinka served in the Illinois House of Representatives from 1981 ...

was a moderate Republican first elected in 2010 and subsequently re-elected in 2014 to a second four-year term as Comptroller. However, Topinka died unexpectedly in December 2014. On December 19, Governor Pat Quinn appointed

Jerry Stermer Jerome "Jerry" Stermer is an American Democratic politician who was appointed Comptroller of Illinois for a short period in late 2014 and early 2015, and was previously in many other Illinois state government positions and private political posit ...

to succeed Topinka, to serve until January 12, 2015, when he was replaced by

Leslie Munger Leslie Geissler Munger(January 5, 2015) "Rauner to Appoint Leslie Munger as Next Illinois Comptroller" ''WGNtv.com''. Retrieved January 12, 2015. (born September 5, 1956) is an American politician and business executive who served as the Illinois ...

, who was appointed by Quinn's successor as governor,

Bruce Rauner Bruce Vincent Rauner (; born February 18, 1956) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 42nd governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. Prior to his election, he was the chairman of R8 Capital Partners and chai ...

.(January 5, 2015)
"Rauner to Appoint Leslie Munger as Next Illinois Comptroller"
''WGNtv.com''. Retrieved January 12, 2015. Munger was then defeated by

in the 2016 special election to fill the remainder of the term through 2018.

Merger proposals

Some legislators have perceived a redundancy overlap between the offices of Comptroller and Treasurer, and have therefore proposed constitutional amendments to merge the two offices and earn administrative savings. For example, HJRCA 12, considered by the

Illinois General Assembly The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 181 ...

in the 2008-2009 session, would merge the office of Comptroller into the office of Treasurer. In 2011, Comptroller Topinka and the Treasurer, Dan Rutherford, introduced legislation to allow voters to decide whether the offices should be merged. The legislation was opposed by

Michael Madigan Michael Joseph Madigan (born April 19, 1942) is an American politician who is the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. He was the longest-serving leader of any state or federal legislative body in the history of the United Sta ...

Speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the

Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the current constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 re ...

, and did not become law.

List of office holders

The following is an historic list of office holders for the Comptroller of Illinois and its preceding office, the Auditor of Public Accounts.

Auditors of Public Accounts, Northwest Territory

* Rice Bullock (1799–1800)

Auditors of Public Accounts, Indiana Territory

*vacant (1801–1809)

Auditors of Public Accounts, Illinois Territory

*vacant (1809 - 1812)

Auditors of Public Accounts, State of Illinois

Comptrollers, State of Illinois

References

{{Illinois statewide political officials 1970 establishments in Illinois