Comptroller of Illinois
Seal of the State of Illinois
Incumbent Susana Mendoza since December 5, 2016
Style	Mister or Madam Comptroller (informal) The Honorable (formal)
Member of	Board of Trustees of the State Employees' Retirement System[1]
Seat	Illinois State Capitol Springfield, Illinois
Appointer	General election
Term length	Four years, no term limits
Inaugural holder	George W. Lindberg
Formation	December 15, 1970 (55 years ago) (December 15, 1970)
Succession	Fourth
Salary	$135,669 (2016)[2]
Website	Official page

TheComptroller of Illinois is a constitutional officer in theexecutive branch of government of theU.S. state ofIllinois. Ten individuals have held the office of Comptroller since the enactment of theIllinois Constitution of 1970, replacing the prior office of Auditor of Public Accounts that was first created in 1799. The incumbent isSusana Mendoza, aDemocrat.

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 their 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.^[3]

Article V, Section 17 of the Constitution of Illinois states the Comptroller "...shall maintain the State's central fiscal accounts, and order payments into and out of the funds held by theTreasurer."^[4] In accordance with this mandate, the Comptroller is designated by law as thechief fiscal control officer for the state of Illinois and thus responsible for the legal, efficient, and effectivefinancial operations of state government.^[5][6] As such, the Comptroller:

1. Prescribes uniformaccounting standards,records financial transactions, codifiesappropriations made by law, and makesadjustments in the statewide accounting system.^[7]
2. Establishesinternal control guidelines applicable to every state agency.^[8]
3. Ordersdeposits into the state treasury and approvesreceipts issued by the Treasurer.^[9]
4. Auditsvouchers certified by state agencies for obligations incurred, including obligations made by the state to its employees and creditors, and issueswarrants on thestate treasury in payment of vouchers approved, either by signingpaychecks or granting approval toelectronic payments.^[10]
5. Administerspayroll to state employees.^[11]
6. Maintains records ofinventory andbonded indebtedness for every state agency.^[12]
7. Monitorscash flow in eachstate fund and approves interfund transfers.^[13][14]
8. Provides monthly debt transparency reports to theGeneral Assembly.^[15][16]
9. Prepares the state'sannual comprehensive financial report.^[17][18][a]
10. Approves or refuses the sale ofstate bonds in excess of statutory debt limits.^[19] Illinois state agencies, as a matter of law, cannot generally incur debt in excess of sums appropriated by the General Assembly. In practice however, state agencies can incur debt beyond these statutory limits if the resulting bonds are authorized by theGovernor and approved by the Comptroller. If approved, said bonds areissued by the Office of Management and Budget, a Cabinet-level state agency, andserviced as to principal and interest by the Treasurer.^[20] No other electedstate comptroller in the United States enjoys this power over bond issuance.^[b]

The Comptroller is charged by statute with certain additional duties. In particular, the Comptroller supervises local government finances throughout Illinois. This function includes reviewing localities'financial statements, collecting financial data and organizing it into user-friendlydatabases, investigating instances ofwaste orfraud in local governments, and publishing an annual report summarizing the revenues, expenditures, fund balance, and debt of some 9,000 units of local government.^{[22][23][24][25]} Moreover, the Comptroller regulatescemeteries 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.^[26]

Aside from their regular responsibilities, the Comptroller is fourth (behind theLieutenant Governor,Attorney General, andSecretary of State, respectively) in theline of succession to the office ofGovernor of Illinois.^[27][28] The Comptroller is also by law a member of the board of trustees of the State Employees' Retirement System (SERS), the independent state agency that administerspublic pensions for legislators and their staff, the judiciary, executive branch officials, and the professionalcivil service.^[29]

The lateJudy Baar Topinka was a moderateRepublican 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.^[30] On December 19, GovernorPat Quinn appointedJerry Stermer to succeed Topinka, to serve until January 12, 2015, when he was replaced byLeslie Munger, who was appointed by Quinn's successor as governor,Bruce Rauner.^[31][32][33] Munger was then defeated bySusana Mendoza in the2016 special election to fill the remainder of the term through 2018.

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 theIllinois General Assembly in the 2008-2009 session, would merge the office of Comptroller into the office of Treasurer.^[34]

In 2011, Comptroller Topinka and the Treasurer,Dan Rutherford, introduced legislation to allow voters to decide whether the offices should be merged.^[35] The legislation was opposed byMichael Madigan,Speaker of theIllinois House of Representatives, and did not become law.^[36]

The following is an historic list of office holders for the Comptroller of Illinois and its preceding office, the Auditor of Public Accounts.^[37][38]

• Rice Bullock (1799–1800)

• vacant (1801–1809)

• vacant (1809–1812)

• Comptrollers of Illinois
• 1970 establishments in Illinois
• State auditors and comptrollers of the United States

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