When state government agencies only pay 90% of the bill to contractors across the board for every project, whether there's a problem or not, there are serious job-killing cash flow consequences. Contractors become bankers as they need to somehow come up with the other 10% of the contract money to pay employees and supplies and wait months and months to finally get paid at the end of the project. That's not fair and it has a disproportionate impact on minority-, women- and veteran-owned contractors who tend to have less wealth. Legislation would harmonize Illinois policies with federal policies where retention (the agency keeping 10%-5% of the money to ensure the contractor finishes the job) is allowed but only when there is a reason for it based on the specific project. The federal government doesn't allow for across-the-board retention and these state bills would similarly use the federal policy of allowing retention only for a reason. The benefits to contractors and their employees will be enormous.