SPRINGFIELD - As Gov. Pat Quinn prepares to propose his first spending plan as Illinois' top official, the state is behind on its bills by billions of dollars.

Quinn and lawmakers will wrangle over solutions to the historic deficit in the coming months. And as they do, Illinoisans should be watching closely.

The state owes them a lot of money.

One Central Illinois group of nursing homes is owed more than $50 million. A southern Illinois company that cleans up old, dirty gas stations is owed $13 million - and has laid off 20 workers because of it. There are countless others waiting to be paid.

Paying them, said Quinn spokesman Bob Reed, will be a key goal.

"Gov. Pat Quinn realizes this is a serious problem and he is examining ways to pay all vendors in a more timely manner," Reed said. "In fact, it is expected to be one of the priorities of the new budget."

The deficit number Quinn faces as he plans his March 18 budget proposal is at least $9 billion. To put that in perspective, the state spends about $1.4 billion to operate all of its prisons. And the entire Department of Natural Resources budget is around $200 million.

Cutting could be hard. The state's largest employee union is pushing hard to keep state workers from losing their jobs, and education interests such as public universities have already asked not to get cut.

"Due to the recession and more Illinoisans being out of jobs, they're lining up for those services at the same time the state is cutting back on those services," said Anders Lindall, a spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.

And one option besides cutting back, raising taxes, could suck some life out of the recently approved federal stimulus package, experts say.

Under one plan emerging from talks aimed at filling the hole, the state income tax rate would rise to 5 percent, up from its current 3 percent rate.

Republicans stand ready to be critical of Democrats' handling of the state's money troubles this year, as they have been for the past several years under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

"They want to lay a $9 billion problem at the feet of Rod Blagojevich when they were his enablers," said state Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington, who is running for governor in 2010.

So far, Quinn has been mum on his plans, including whether to ask the General Assembly to raise taxes during the worst recession in decades.

Quinn has repeatedly said he is keeping his options open.

But others have raised the prospect of an income tax hike, an increase in the gasoline tax, or hitting smokers with more cigarette taxes.

Experts say small tax increases here and there might not cripple individual families. But it could make a difference on the larger economy because small amounts of money people don't have in their wallets won't get spent elsewhere.

"That added up has a significant impact on the economy," said Anthony Liberatore, a professor of economics at Millikin University in Decatur.

Tax cuts in the federal government's stimulus package purport to give average workers around $8 more a week on their paychecks starting in April.

A state income tax increase would virtually wipe that out.

"It certainly works against stimulus," said Mike Seeborg, an Illinois Wesleyan University economics professor.

For obvious reasons, Illinoisans focus on the budget situation in their home state, but experts say they're not alone. States across the country, Liberatore said, didn't keep their spending in check in good times, and are now feeling the pinch in bad times, perhaps forcing them to raise taxes, too.

"It's not just us," said Seeborg.