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 State lawmakers were wrong to freeze their own pay between 2009
and 2016, said a Cook County judge who ruled in favor of two former state
senators who want their back pay.
On July 2, Cook County Circuit Judge Franklin Valderrama ruled the Illinois
Constitution prohibits changes to lawmaker compensation in the middle of a
lawmaker’s term. The judge did not order the state to issue back paychecks,
instead scheduling a hearing Aug. 7.
Former state Sen. Michael Noland, D-Elgin, sued the state comptroller shortly
after he retired in 2017, seeking repayment for himself and all other members of
the General Assembly who passed eight bills rejecting their annual
cost-of-living raises. Noland, too, voted for at least one of the pay freezes in
2012.
“[T]he least we can do is cut our own pay again,” Noland said in a statement at
the time. “I know most working families in Illinois are not seeing raises this
year, so we shouldn’t either.”
Also suing is former state Sen. James Clayborne, D-Belleville, who retired in
January after a 24-year career, serving the last 10 years as Senate majority
leader. He joined Noland as a co-plaintiff in 2018.
He, too, voted for the 2012 pay freeze and said this at the time: “Rejecting
this pay raise is the right thing to do at a time when so many people are
struggling to make ends meet. As legislators, it’s wrong to ask our fellow
Illinoisans to make responsible decisions if we are unwilling to do the same.”
After the $1,600 cost-of-living increase Gov. J.B. Pritzker approved in June,
Illinois lawmakers are set to earn around $70,000 for a part-time job that
requires about 70 days of legislative work in Springfield per year. This does
not include $10,000 committee chairmanship stipends, per diems, mileage
reimbursements and other perks, not to mention retired lawmakers’ pension costs.
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In total, lawmaker compensation costs Illinois
taxpayers more than $32 million a year.
State law grants state lawmakers automatic annual
cost-of-living increases, but state lawmakers rejected those
increases each year from 2009 to 2016, according to the Chicago
Tribune. The section of the state constitution Valderrama referenced
in his ruling says Illinois lawmakers “shall receive a salary and
allowances as provided by law, but changes in the salary of a member
shall not take effect during the term for which he has been
elected.”
State lawmakers gave up pay raises as the state’s fiscal condition
rapidly deteriorated, driven largely by pension debt. No state
pension system is as poorly funded as lawmakers’ own system, the
General Assembly Retirement System, or GARS. It contains less than
15 cents for every $1 owed in benefits, and costs taxpayers millions
in annual bailouts.
Fifty-eight former state lawmakers enrolled in GARS collect yearly
pension payouts over $100,000, with 44 having accumulated over $1
million in total pension benefits.
Noland’s and Clayborne’s current legal bid for back pay departs from
their past rationale for voting to reject the 2012 pay raise.
Illinois last year ranked 46th in the nation for jobs growth and had
the highest overall tax burden in the nation, which means families
across the state have faced financial obstacles as Noland and
Clayborne have been petitioning the courts for more tax dollars.
Valderrama’s ruling came one day after Illinoisans saw the first of
what will ultimately be 21 new tax and fee hikes to support
Pritzker’s $45 billion capital plan and record $40 billion state
budget. It means taxpayers’ wallets can be raided by current
lawmakers, as well as by past lawmakers.
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