 A state Senate panel on Monday passed a plan requiring General
Assembly members to take 12 furlough days for fiscal 2012, which
starts in July.However, the same proposal,
Senate Bill 260, includes "additional amounts per year" for
other lawmakers -- committee chairmen and committee minority
spokesmen and spokeswomen.
The lump-sum appropriations in the proposal would increase pay
for Senate committee chiefs by 14 percent. House committee bosses
would see a 47 percent jump in pay. These increases are on top of
the base $67,836 annual salaries that all lawmakers earn. Committee
and leadership posts bring extra pay.
In other words, more taxpayers' money would be funneled into
extra pay for select lawmakers, said state Sen. Dale Righter,
R-Mattoon.
"So there's some games being played here," said Righter, a member
of the Senate Executive Committee. "And sometimes that's the way
things happen -- like this -- is because (Democrats) want to do it
before anyone really sees it."
However, state Sen. Dan Kotowski, D-Park Ridge, who sponsored the
measure, said this move would restore the public's good faith and
trust to the government.
"We're basically changing the existing law, to require
legislators to work 12 days without getting paid," he said. "That's
very, very important, and that's going to lead to reduction in
salaries across the board this year and a total of saving $1.2
million for taxpayers."
Lawmakers do want the public to notice when they cut their own
pay, Righter and Kotowski said.
"But not this, the increasing the stipend (proposal), because it
kind of makes it look like, 'OK you're taking it out of your pocket
over here, but you're going to shove your other pocket full,'"
Righter said. "That's what it looks like, like the outset that
they're trying to do here."
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Lilia Hodges, 58, of Chicago, was at the Capitol on Monday to
support Progress Center for Independent Living, a nonprofit advocacy
organization.
"I feel ashamed and I feel mortified that our legislators would
increase the lining of their pockets when we, who are on Social
Security disability, have not had a cost-of-living increase in over
two years," said Hodges, an Army veteran who served until 1984.
Eric Guidish, 41, said lawmakers deserve a pay raise, but now is
not the right time.
"I understand lawmakers work hard, ... but I don't know if I can
bear a pay raise (for lawmakers)," the Springfield man said. "Here
we are asking not to be cut and to be able to continue to live in
our communities and live with our family and loved ones. On the
other hand, we hear they are required to receive pay raises when a
lot of agencies are losing funding and closing."
The government needs to live within its means, said Kotowski, a
sponsor of the legislation.
"The fact is, we have very limited resources available, and we
have to make necessary cuts and sacrifices," he said. "The General
Assembly needs to lead, and that's what we're doing -- we're leading
and we're making necessary sacrifices that we have to."
The measure is on its way to the Senate for a full vote.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By MARY J. CRISTOBAL] |
