SPRINGFIELD, Ill. | Ambulance operators, pharmacists, aircraft repairmen, produce providers, funeral home directors, even racing horse owners. Illinois businesses large and small have suffered as state government's failure to promptly pay its bills became the status quo. While all business owners are suffering through the nation's economic problems, the state's inability to pay its debts for months at a time has forced these vendors and service providers to borrow money, lay off staff, cut salaries and more.
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. Even the guy who keeps state government's planes in the air can't get paid on time. Illinois owed $15,668 to Klem's Aero Repair as of early September, with some bills stretching back to the beginning of May.
Owner Irvin Klemmensen said he got one check in August for work he had done in January on the five planes he tends from an overall fleet the state uses for state police and other business.
Klemmensen used to have two employees at his Jacksonville business, but he had to lay them off a couple of years ago. "I can't afford to have anybody else. The state is the biggest cause of it," he said.
State checks used to come like clockwork, Klemmensen said. Now they come in fits and starts so that he can't count on the money.
Klemmensen said he would never take shortcuts on aircraft maintenance, no matter how slowly the state pays him. But he knows the state wouldn't be so patient if he were the one not making his payments.
"If I didn't pay my sales tax, they'd send me all kinds of nasty letters and threats," he said.
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