 After Gov. Pat Quinn approved a $32.9 billion budget with $366
million in spending cuts, he told nearly 30,000 state employees that
lawmakers did not include funding for their salary increases in the
2012 budget. If the state paid for them, Illinois would run out of
money by spring, he said."We have got to run the government, got
to make sure (the money) lasts for an entire fiscal year," Quinn
said. "I had no choice."
However, Quinn may have no choice but to fund the raises, because
the state negotiated them in a contract with state workers during
the Blagojevich administration in 2008, said state Rep. Frank
Mautino, D-Spring Valley.
"Some of the things (Quinn has) done, I think the courts are
gonna say can't be done because of contractual rights," said Mautino,
a budget expert who helped write the spending plan for the House
Democrats.
Most workers in line for a raise are union members, but some are
in management positions.
The deal with the union provided for nearly 15 percent in pay
increases distributed over the four years of the contract. The
agreement with the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, was signed months before FBI agents
arrested then-Gov. Rod. Blagojevich on a host of corruption charges.
Blagojevich now is awaiting sentencing after he was convicted of
corruption.
State Sen. Matt Murphy, R-Palatine, said the state simply cannot
handle the expense.
"We can't afford, on average, 6 to 8 percent raises for state
employees when we're trying to bring our budget back in line so that
tax increases that were sold as temporary can really be temporary,"
said Murphy, a budget expert who serves as the Senate GOP point man
on fiscal matters.
Henry Bayer, AFSCME Council 31 executive director, said state
workers have done their part to help with Illinois' budget woes.
In a statement released Friday, Bayer said: "At the request of Governor Quinn, AFSCME members agreed to
significant steps to help address the state's budget woes. Under
negotiated cost-savings agreements reached at the bargaining table,
three times in the last 18 months they deferred scheduled increases,
and thousands have taken unpaid furlough days."
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AFSCME spokesman Anders Lindall said the union is expected to
file a lawsuit against the state in "the next day or two."
If the union does not file a lawsuit over the pay raises, Mautino
said lawmakers are then expected to act in the fall.
The fall veto session also is the earliest that school districts
are expected to get answers about the governor's elimination of $89
million for school buses statewide and $11 million for regional
superintendents.
Mautino said the governor cannot eliminate the regional
superintendents' pay without eliminating their duties as well.
"If we had written (legislation) that eliminated them
statutorily, or what we require regional superintendents to do in
the mandates, that would be a different story," Mautino said.
Murphy said both the loss of transportation money and the
regional superintendents will hit downstate schools harder.
The General Assembly is scheduled to convene for the fall veto
session in the last week of October.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]
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