Letter: Investors help state when bills are paid late

The recent editorial regarding the payment of interest on the state's late payment of vendor bills somehow implies that when an investor buys a vendor's receivable balance from the state, that investor is somehow undeserving of collecting the interest on that debt instead of the original vendor.

This ignores the fact that a vendor who takes advantage of this payment arrangement has received a lifeline from that investor and has done so because of suffering real economic hardship from the state's delinquency in paying its bills.

The vendor, who needs the money to operate if not maybe just survive, is made whole. The investor, who has the resources to wait out the state's delay, has the right to profit from advancing the funds to a business needing their lifeline, the same way any lender is compensated for advancing funds to a borrower.

In this case, the borrower is actually the state because it is the debtor which lacks the funds to pay its bills on-time. As such, it should be paying interest on its past due balances to the entity holding that debt, whether it's a vendor or an investor who stepped in to pay that past due amount.

Michael McCotter

Hoffman Estates