From The Desk Down State

Watchdog group Truth in Accounting has issued a report that ranks Illinois among the least fiscally-transparent states in the nation.

Illinois has been ranked ninth-worst, with the state’s score negatively affected by such factors as the late delivery of its annual documents, a failure to have an external auditor look at the numbers, and a distorted net financial position due to misleading and confusing information on its report.

The Truth in Accounting group measures each state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report and issues scores based on eight criteria: accessibility, searchability, if...