MOUNT VERNON - When Gov. Rod Blagojevich opened up a press conference to questions from audience, Jefferson County businessman Jay Koch was ready.

Koch, who operates an environmental cleanup operation employing 80 people, conducts a significant amount of business with the state.

"We are currently experiencing slow payments to the point where it is seriously jeopardizing our operation. I realize there are a lot of problems with the budget at the state level but is there any hope in sight with regard to the payment of these bills that are so slow,"

Koch asked. "Our payment cycle is 550 days. I'm very concerned about our employees because of that."

Blagojevich said he would look into the seemingly extraordinary time Koch is waiting for payment.

The governor also said there would be a substantial amount of opportunity to change that in the next few months: a new president, a new Democratic state Senate president chosen and a new Republican Senate leader selected.

Blagojevich said the new leadership will change some of the dynamics in state government "When there's an election, you the people have spoken and it shakes up the status quo and brings about change," he said.

"Here's the challenge," the governor said. "The economy has slowed. The situation with regard to the state budget is worse today than it was Labor Day. The expectation of the revenue we thought we were going to get is not as good as it was and because of the economic crisis (nationally) consumer confidence is down and when confidence is down, people spend less money and therefore less sales tax comes in.

"When unemployment is up fewer people are working and therefore less income tax revenue is coming in, so we're now faced with budget deficits that we didn't anticipate and as a result we have to come up with a way to address that. We downsize government in some places and we have to find some revenue in other places, other than raising taxes."

He said with new leadership in the General Assembly, he hopes to get a capital bill that would put people to work and help boost the state economy.

Blagojevich also took a question regarding his choice to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.

He said he would take his time in replacing Obama, just as voters mull over their choices.

"Virtually all the names that have been talked about have come out of Chicago but there are good candidates and qualified people who are either in politics, in government, in business in education, in health care who are in Southern Illinois and central Illinois, and I want to give enough opportunity to consider a variety of different people from these parts of Illinois, too," he said.

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