A program that helps vendors get paid even when the state is late paying its bills might be in danger, the head of one financial company said, because of the way Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is prioritizing the bills that she does pay.

The program is called the Vendor Payment Program and it allows third-party financial companies, known as “qualified purchasers,” to buy the debts owed to state vendors and then collect the late interest penalty owed whenever the state does pay the bill.

A state retailers’ association said while the state gears up to dole out federal aid to local businesses, it’s not listening to things Illinois’ business owners want to be done to foster growth.

With a little over two weeks into Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Phase 4 COVID-19 reopening plan where restaurants are allowed dine-in with limits and the retail industry allowed to have 50 percent capacity per the governor’s public health recommendations, they are still struggling.