The state’s economic condition continues to improve, giving leaders the chance to dig further out of debt.

The latest report from the state’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability is downright rosy. Despite fears that the global pandemic would punish Illinois’ economy, nearly the opposite has happened. So far this fiscal year — a period that began last July 1 — sales-tax receipts are up 3.3 percent and personal income-tax revenue has grown 12.6 percent. Corporate taxes are up an astounding 35 percent for the year.

The preliminary figures for March are even more heartening. Sales-tax revenue grew 11 percent, and the personal income-tax category — the biggest and most important stream of dollars — was up almost 10 percent.

Meanwhile, more than $7 billion in federal stimulus money — proceeds of the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan — are headed to the state. About $3.8 billion of that must be used to pay back the Federal Reserve for emergency borrowing undertaken last year. But some of that revenue can be used to pay Illinois’ bill backlog, much of it owed to in-state vendors.

That backlog stands at about

$5.1 billion, but that’s an improvement from a year ago.

All of this is to say that the Illinois economy is doing well and tax revenue and federal aid is on the rise. So, what should be done with that windfall? Resist the urge to spend it on new programs. Take the advice of bond houses that recently urged the state to undertake budget stability measures.

Moody’s observed that “the longer-term challenges associated with the state’s very large unfunded post-employment liabilities remain.” Illinois has a large, diverse economy with above-average wealth, Moody’s said, but state government has “outsized unfunded pension liabilities, which in turn indicate institutional governance shortcomings.” It urged “decisive actions to improve funding of the state’s main pension plans.”

Fitch Ratings and S&P offered a similar outlook, saying that the state’s high fixed costs, pension obligations and lack of reserves threaten its fiscal stability.

The Pritzker administration and the General Assembly, both of which recently gained new leaders, have a historic opportunity to reverse a short-term population decline and a longer-term pension problem. They should stabilize spending, establish a rainy-day fund, dedicate more money to paying those long-standing pension obligations and turn the page on decades of fiscal mismanagement and irresponsibility. This really is a golden opportunity.