Yeah, but when companies issue bonds, they use the real money issued from the sale of these bonds to pay down debts of creditors. In this case, if the IOU's are like bonds then they should be sold on the market, and the real money collected should be used to pays these small businesses, which are the state's creditors. I know a state is not a company, but when raising capital via debt, you can't just force someone to accept these IOU's when they are owed money.