By Karen Pierog, includes “… Illinois’ general fund budget deficit grew by 52 percent in fiscal 2017 to a record $14.6 billion as political feuding pushed the state deeper into the red, according to an annual financial report released on Thursday by the Illinois Auditor General. … The so-called credit spread over Thomson Reuters’ Municipal Market Data benchmark triple-A yield scale was 208 basis points for Illinois’ 10-year bonds on Wednesday. That is well above the 75 basis-point spread for New Jersey, another fiscally challenged state.”