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Sen. Brady: Is delay in budget tied
to legislative pay raises?
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[August 09, 2007]
SPRINGFIELD -- As Democratic legislative
leaders sailed past another budget deadline Wednesday -- disrupting
state aid payments to Illinois schools, benefits to people with
disabilities and paychecks to state employees -- state Sen. Bill
Brady is questioning if the delay has anything to do with pay raises
for state officials.
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 Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes has indicated that a budget was
needed by Aug. 8, when the state is scheduled to issue $170 million
in general state aid to schools and paychecks must be processed for
nearly 5,000 state employees. Without a budget, August checks for
hundreds of disabled former state employees will also not be issued
as scheduled."With all the Democrats' machinations and egos
creating delay and backlog, Illinois citizens and the people
employed by the state will suffer," said Brady, R-Bloomington. "It
could be that Senate President Emil Jones is hoping to hold action
on a budget until we are past the 14th this month, when a pay raise
for elected officials could automatically go into effect."
Brady explained that funding for pay raises for legislators and
state officials was included in legislation sent to the governor
June 14. That measure -- a special "supplemental" budget bill -- is
still sitting on his desk. If no action is taken within 60 days, it
automatically becomes law.
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 "Delaying any action on next year's budget until after the 14th
gives the Senate president extra leverage. He knows full well that
if the governor fails to act on the pay raise legislation by then,
the pay raises will go into effect. Unfortunately, we may just be
going through the motions so Senator Jones can guarantee his members
a pay raise," Brady said. "I am calling on the governor to act on
this issue. If the pay raises are not being used as a bargaining
chip in the budget process, why the delay? Take it off your desk.
Veto it, amendatorily veto it, or sign it so that we can move on
with the budget process and remove this as an obstacle to our
negotiations."
The General Assembly missed its scheduled May 31 adjournment
deadline, as well as the 2008 fiscal year deadline on July 1. A
one-month budget to keep state government running, approved late in
June, ran out July 31.
On July 25, the General Assembly set a record for the longest
legislative overtime. The governor continues to convene multiple
"special sessions" in response to the continued budget impasse. The
cost for a special session is estimated at $42,000 per day.
[Text from file sent on behalf of
Sen.
Bill Brady by Illinois
Senate Republican staff]
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