Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes spoke late Tuesday morning at a financial conference in Urbana, addressing a room full of workers, curious students, and residents of Champaign and Urbana.

Hynes appeared as the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the Illinois Government Finance Officers Associate at the Hilton Garden Inn, 1501 S. Neil St., where he spoke about unemployment, health care, and education dollars in Illinois, among other items.

According to Champaign Finance Director Richard Schnuer, this conference occurs due to changes in the Illinois economy resulting in issues that affect finance and budgets.

Throughout Hynes’ speech, he mentioned that Illinois health care and education are top priorities, but due to the spending consequences of previous Illinois governors, some services could be cut.

Hynes said that one out of every seven Illinois citizens don’t have health care, and although income taxes have not risen yet, Illinois is unprepared for an imminent increase. This will lead to delays in Medicaid bills.

Hynes even believes that the Illinois economy is on the brink of a recession.

“Funding for schools in Illinois is not being distributed equally,” Hynes said. “Which is unfair because some schools have computers, while in other schools kids are struggling to survive let alone get educated.”

Illinois state Sen. Michael Frerichs, D-52, who opened for Hynes, agreed with this statement and said that state funding and budget cuts may affect the city of Champaign. If tax revenue decreases, he said, major sources of funding will be cut, and unemployment will rise.

In addition to this, these funding discrepancies could affect the University. Hynes said that less money went towards higher eduction this year, which could result in higher tuition rates.

Hynes said he believes that the government should pass a capital bill to generate dollars which will go into infrastructure for Medicaid, education and unemployment.