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| Illinois' Bill for Cell Phones is $3.8 Million |
| By Daily Herald State |
| Published: 03/18/2003 |
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State prison officials had nearly 1,800 cellular phones and ran up almost $972,000 in phone bills last year, more than any other state agency, a review of state records shows. Meanwhile, the state's Department of Financial Institutions' cellular phone bills totaled $20,015.02 for the nine phones assigned to the agency, an average of $2,223.89 per phone. These phones may soon be on the chopping block as Gov. Rod Blagojevich vowed February 24 to review the state's cellular phone spending in an effort to rein in spending as Illinois faces a nearly $5 billion deficit. He called on all state agencies to cut an average of 10 percent off their administrative budgets and prepare for even deeper cuts. Cellular phones could fall under those cuts. Overall, nearly 8,000 cell phones are assigned to state agencies, universities, and boards and commissions. The total bill for taxpayers from these phones was more than $3.8 million, a Daily Herald review of state records shows. The bills cover 2002. 'This certainly appears to be an area where we would want to look at this with a magnifying glass in one hand and a scalpel in the other, or perhaps a more blunt instrument,' said Blagojevich spokesman Billy Weinberg. In addition, Blagojevich said Verizon Wireless is charging the state 11 cents per minute, nearly three times the rate currently advertised. 'We want to see if we can renegotiate that contract,' he said. But officials for Schaumburg-based Verizon said they've already been in contact with the state about revising the contract. They also said a variety of cheaper calling plans exist within the contract but the state isn't using them. Unless the state signs up for specific calling plans, the default rate is 10 cents a minute, they said. The state agency overseeing billing charges other agencies an additional 1-cent to cover costs. 'Like all residents of the state and all businesses our company is very concerned with the budget deficit,' said Michael A. McDermott, Verizon's lobbyist. He said Blagojevich may not be fully aware of the talks regarding reduced rate plans but that the company supports his cost cutting moves. State agency officials said they would review their cellular phone bills but some disputed the number of phones and billing totals in the state reports. Mia Jazo Harris, Capital Development Board spokeswoman, said the agency's records showed smaller bills, roughly $50 per phone rather than the $1,829 state records provided by Blagojevich's office showed. She said the billing rate had recently been lowered. Department of Corrections spokesman Sergio Molina said nearly all of the 400 parole agents have cell phones. 'Those parole agents are actually on the streets visiting their case loads,' he said. Wardens and other supervisors are assigned phones to maintain immediate access to their prisons. 'We have a number of employees required to be on call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week,' Molina said. He said the agency director agreed the entire prison system needs to be reviewed for savings. Dan Cavanaugh, acting director of the Department of Financial Institutions, didn't know of the perks. 'I was unaware I even had a cell phone,' said Cavanaugh, who's been at the post two months. 'I didn't even know I had a car 'till last week. So I'm finding out all these things as we go along.' Cavanaugh said he would review who has cellular phones and whether it would be cheaper to give them phone cards. As for last year's bill, he said he knows of one employee who reimbursed the state because some minutes were used for personal purposes. He did not know how much the state had been reimbursed. Other agency officials said they expect recent early retirements to reduce the need for cellular phones. More than 11,000 state employees opted to retire under the early retirement plan. |
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