PIKE COUNTY off state ‘no pay’ list

By Editor | December 2, 2025 |

By DAVID CAMPHOUSE
River County NewsAfter falling years behind on its financial audits required by the State of Illinois, Pike County had been placed on the state’s “no pay” list by the Illinois Department of Commerce of Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and other state funding agencies.
The placement of Pike County on the “no-pay” list compounded the County’s ongoing financial crisis by rendering the County ineligible for much state and federal grant funding that could have been used to offset direct county expenditures.
Now – after an October 27 meeting with State Senator Jil Tracy, State Representative CD Davidsmeyer, Pike County Board President Reta Hoskin, Circuit Clerk Bryce Gleckler, States Attorney Walker Filbert, and other representatives from the States Attorney’s office – Pike County has been removed from DCEO’s ‘no-pay’ list, allowing the County to seek grant funding from that state agency.
State Representative CD Davidsmeyer credits the removal of Pike County from the “no-pay” list to advocacy undertaken on the County’s behalf by the offices of Senator Tracy and his own office.
“Senator Tracy’s and my office had been working on this together, and last I heard they were off the ‘do not pay list’ for DCEO,” Davidsmeyer said.
The legislators advocated for Pike County, in part, because the County has made strides toward becoming current with its state-mandated financial audit requirements.
The County has submitted its FY21 audit to the state, and Board President Reta Hoskin has said that work is currently being conducted by the county’s auditing firm to complete the FY22 and FY23 audits.
“They have started working on ‘23,” Hoskin said. “They have asked department heads for additional information on that.”
“I believe the auditors are close to finalizing 2022. They have told us before that they are trying to have 2022 done before the end of the year, so we are hopeful about that.”
Hoskin indicated that the removal of the County from DCEO’s “no-pay” list will allow the County to start seeking funding from that agency. Hoskin indicated that she had been told that DCEO funds exist that may be used for infrastructure work on county facilities.
“For a while now, DCEO has had on hold two grants totaling $450,000,” Hoskin said. “That was set aside in earlier legislation for Pike County to be used for infrastructure needs.”
Pike County States Attorney Walker Filbert stated that many other local units of government are also struggling to contract and retain auditing firms to complete state-mandated financial audits, and he indicated that state lawmakers had been in discussions about how to solve the auditing bottleneck and reduce penalties for units of government that had fallen behind in submitting audits through no fault of their own.
In addition to the County being removed from DCEO’s “no-pay” list, the Pike County Health Department has also received word from the Department of Human Services (DHS), that the county was no longer on that agency’s “no-pay” list.
It is unclear how – if at all – the removal of Pike County from State of Illinois “no-pay” lists would affect the County’s ability to seek federal grant funding, as most grant opportunities require proof of a current financial audit in the course of the application process.