State pays rent on Libertyville driver's license facility

Two weeks after the driver's license facility in Libertyville was threatened with eviction because of unpaid rent, state officials on Thursday said the debt has been paid.

Rent for the secretary of state office in the Brookside Shopping Center on Peterson Road has been paid through September, said Henry Haupt, a spokesman for the state office.

Stephen Martin, a member of the family that owns the shopping center, could not be reached for comment.

Last week, Martin went public with a threat to evict the facility because he was owed three months of back rent and expenses, totaling nearly $43,000.

In a letter to the secretary of state's office, Martin said the debt was a breach of the lease for the site, which the state opened in 1987.

The state had fallen behind on rent payments last year and earlier this year, too.

The secretary of state's office does not actually cut the checks for its rent. The state comptroller's office does.

The delinquent rent checks are symptomatic of the state's ongoing financial problems. The comptroller's office has $4.3 billion in unpaid bills in its system, a spokesman said last week.

Several state lawmakers have faced eviction from their district offices because of overdue rent, too, including state Rep. Sandy Cole of Grayslake.