Senator’s phone shut off after bill isn’t paid

SPRINGFIELD — Sen. Suzi Schmidt’s district office phone wasn’t working Monday, which she attributed to the state’s tardiness in paying the bill.

Schmidt’s Lake Villa office number greeted the caller with the following recorded message: “The party you are trying to reach is not currently accepting calls at this number.”

Schmidt’s phone loss isn’t as dire as the plight of human services providers or schools that are owed more than a billion dollars by the state.

But it’s an example of some of the problems the state faces when it doesn’t pay its bills on time.

“If they don’t pay our phone bills, there’s nothing I can do,” Schmidt said via her cellphone.

Schmidt said her district office is in a township building. That way, she says, if the state doesn’t pay rent for her office, she won’t get kicked out.

Schmidt posted her Springfield office number and email address on Facebook Monday, letting people know her district office phone was down.

Gov. Pat Quinn has proposed borrowing billions of dollars to pay overdue bills and then paying off the loans with money from the recent income tax increase.

But lawmakers — Schmidt’s fellow Republicans in particular — have resisted Quinn’s plan, saying the state shouldn’t be borrowing more money.

That means that even with cuts to state spending, Illinois could continue to have trouble paying bills on time for the foreseeable future.

Schmidt says lawmaker phone bills are paid by the state’s main procurement agency. A spokeswoman for that agency didn’t return a call for comment.