{"id":424540,"date":"2010-03-13T16:29:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-13T20:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c60fd53ef01310f995e9d970c"},"modified":"2010-03-13T16:29:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-13T20:29:29","slug":"states-money-woes-so-bad-lawmakers-getting-eviction-notices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/424540","title":{"rendered":"State’s money woes so bad, lawmakers getting eviction notices"},"content":{"rendered":"

From today’s print edition<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Lawmakers get eviction notices<\/h2>\n

Budget crunch means state is slow to pay office rents<\/h3>\n

By Ray Long and Michelle Manchir, Tribune Reporters<\/p>\n

The state’s money problems are so bad that lawmakers are getting
\neviction notices and calls from collection agencies about their offices
\nback home.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nAt least five state senators say they’ve piled up so much unpaid rent,
\nsheepish landlords are asking them when the government plans to make
\ngood on its bills.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"He said, \u2018Ira, I’m sorry,’" said Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-Chicago,
\nrecalling a visit from his landlord delivering an eviction notice. "And
\nwhat am I going to do? I can’t argue with the man."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nWhile none of the lawmakers has actually gotten the boot yet, they are
\ngetting a taste of the frustratingly slow pace at which the state pays
\nbills as it careens toward a $13 billion budget hole. It’s a pain that’s
\n magnified exponentially for school districts, drug rehabilitation
\ncounselors and businesses awaiting tax refunds.
<\/br><\/p>\n

"It certainly puts us in a position of looking like deadbeats," said
\nSen. Mike Jacobs, an East Moline Democrat who got an eviction notice
\nlast year from a longtime friend who has rented the same building for
\nyears to the senator and his father before him. Payment eventually
\narrived \u2014 nine months late \u2014 but Jacobs was prepared to pay if the state
\n had failed to come through.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nA notice threatening eviction startled freshman Sen. Dan Duffy, a Lake
\nBarrington Republican. Unsure when the state will cough up the $10,000
\nit owes his landlord, Duffy is scrambling to see if he can take refuge
\nin a nearby secretary of state driver’s license outlet or a local
\nlibrary should he eventually get evicted.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"When they can’t pay the rent of a Senate office, there’s no way they’re
\n going to be able to pay the hundreds of millions of dollars in bills
\nthat they have back due," Duffy said. "It just shows what a tragic
\ncrisis we’re in and how far out of hand this is."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nIn the grand scope of what ails state government, the lawmakers all said
\n they recognized late rent for Senate offices is far from the most
\npressing budget issue.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nEach senator receives $83,063 a year as a district office allowance, and
\n the bills end up at the comptroller’s office.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nEvery day, comptroller workers sift through bills for all of state
\ngovernment and prioritize what must be paid and what has to wait. Each
\nmonth, $2 billion is set aside. The state must make payments to schools
\nand repay short-term loans. It must pay hospitals, nursing homes and
\ndoctors caring for Medicaid patients within 30 days in order to get the
\nbest return from the federal government.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nLanguishing further back in line are the bills to pay rents for lawmaker
\n district offices.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nSteve Brown, spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago,
\nsaid he knew of no eviction notices going to House members, but has
\nheard that some legislators "on the brink" have had to dip into their
\nown pockets or campaign funds to pay landlords or keep phone service.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nGetting utility bills paid in a timely fashion has been a problem for
\nSen. John Jones, R-Mount Vernon.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"I’ve heard from collection agencies every month on the power bill and
\nthe phone bill," Jones said. The state once fell seven months behind on
\nhis district office’s $900-a-month rent, and he recalled the landlord
\nsaying, "I gotta pay my bills, and I need my money."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nSen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, said the state may be as much as one
\nyear and $24,000 behind on his office’s lease payments and that he’s had
\n to dip into campaign funds to make phone payments.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"Service was shut down," Kotowski said. "I wasn’t able to communicate
\nwith my constituents, and constituents were not able to communicate with
\n me, and I just decided to use other funds to pay for it."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nSilverstein said his landlord did get a payment after the senator
\nreceived the eviction notice, at least temporarily defusing the
\nsituation.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nBut Silverstein’s landlord, Demetrios Spyrakos, said Friday he hasn’t
\nreceived rent payments since October. He’s owed more than $12,000 from
\nthe state.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nSpyrakos blames Gov. Pat Quinn, who’s tried but failed to get an income
\ntax increase approved. The Jamestown Realty co-owner said he thinks
\nSilverstein is a "good person, but I’ve been asking for the rent. He’s
\ntrying, but nobody listens to him or to me."
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nSilverstein, whose office is in the West Rogers Park neighborhood, might
\n have to find a new place to work out of soon.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"If I don’t get my money by next month, I have to ask him politely to
\nleave and try to find another tenant," Spyrakos said. "What else can you
\n do? I can’t wait forever. Who’s going to pay my bills?"
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\nIt’s the first time Spyrakos has rented to a politician.
<\/br>
\n
<\/br>
\n"And I think it’s going to be my last."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From today’s print edition: Lawmakers get eviction notices Budget crunch means state is slow to pay office rents By Ray Long and Michelle Manchir, Tribune Reporters The state’s money problems are so bad that lawmakers are getting eviction notices and calls from collection agencies about their offices back home. At least five state senators say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3992,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}