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WHY
ILLINOIS STATE LAWMAKERS ARE STILL IN LINE FOR AN $1,800 PAY RAISE
Illinois Policy Institute/
Austin Berg
Illinois
lawmakers are still likely to receive a $1,800 pay raise. But some have
tried their best to make no waves by giving themselves cover from
backlash. |
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 “We don’t want nobody that nobody sent” is the most famous
phrase on Chicago-style corruption.
But a lesser-known saying from the Daley machine explains the ongoing drama
about whether state lawmakers just gave themselves an $1,800 pay raise in the
middle of a pandemic.
“Don’t make no waves, don’t back no losers.”
Illinois lawmakers are still likely to receive a $1,800 pay raise. But some have
tried their best to make no waves by giving themselves cover from backlash.
It didn’t work.
Average Illinoisans – 1.1 million of whom are jobless – were outraged to the
point where Comptroller Susana Mendoza released a video this week assuring the
public that lawmakers would be getting $0 in pay raises this year.
Kudos to Mendoza for standing up against political pay raises.
There’s just one problem: It’s not her choice to make. The state comptroller
does not create a budget and decide who gets paid and who doesn’t, she simply
pays the bills for the state. Members of the General Assembly and the governor
are the ones who create a budget and make it law.
And by refusing to reform the law, Statehouse Democrats decided to make $1,800
political pay raises more likely than not.
Follow along closely to understand how.
At the tail end of his term, former Gov. Pat Quinn tried to withhold lawmaker
paychecks to pressure them into passing pension reform. House Speaker Mike
Madigan didn’t take kindly to a governor wielding this kind of power over his
members. So, along with then-Senate President John Cullerton, he passed a new
law defining lawmaker pay and pay raises as a “continuing appropriation.” A
continuing appropriation is like a bill that automatically gets paid each month,
with or without a budget.
That means it doesn’t matter whether the governor uses his veto power to zero
out appropriations for lawmaker raises. And it doesn’t matter if lawmakers pass
a budget appropriating $0 to raises.
The Illinois law says the money shall be paid even if “aggregate appropriations
made available are insufficient to meet the levels required” and “for any
reason.”
In order to stop the raises, lawmakers must pass a new law specifically
prohibiting them. They could also pass a law removing automatic raises from the
definition of compensation, which the Illinois Supreme Court has ruled.
From fiscal years 2014-2019, they did the former. Lawmakers included specific
language in the budget to stop their own pay raises.
 This year they didn’t.
Under the law, appropriating $0 and touting a handshake agreement with the
comptroller’s office is not enough to stop lawmaker pay hikes. But that’s what
lawmakers did.
Imagine if the General Assembly verbally agreed to stop paying retirees’ pension
payments. Or if lawmakers decided to budget $0 to pay the electric bills for the
Capitol complex.
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top of second column] |
“The [pay raises] are on autopilot,” wrote Rich
Miller of the Springfield political blog Capitol Fax. “They have to
vote themselves to stop it from happening.”
If Pritzker and state lawmakers fail to pass a law prohibiting
lawmaker pay raises this year – and Mendoza doesn’t cut larger
checks for lawmaker pay – they will expose Illinois taxpayers to
expensive lawsuits from aggrieved politicians.
Who would be brazen enough to sue for political
backpay during a pandemic?
Do not underestimate state lawmakers. Especially after they retire.
In 2016, a group of Democratic members of the House of
Representatives successfully sued to get paid during the state’s
budget impasse. More recently, two retired state lawmakers sued for
backpay for every year the General Assembly voted to freeze their
own pay. Some lawmakers are using that lawsuit – which is still
ongoing – as a justification for why they didn’t pass a bill
stopping their pay raises this year.
Again, make no waves.
This argument ignores the fact that there was legislation on the
table to reform the system – ensuring Illinoisans were protected
from political pay raises going forward.
“The General Assembly could have solved the recurring problem of
legislative pay increases in this past session,” said State Sen.
Craig Wilcox, R-McHenry.
“Unfortunately for Illinois taxpayers, my legislation never received
a vote.”
Wilcox introduced a bill back in February to permanently end
automatic pay raises for lawmakers. But Senate Bill 3607 died in the
Senate Assignments Committee without a hearing.
If lawmakers were serious about stopping pay hikes, they would have
passed a bill specifically stopping the raises, dared anyone to sue
(and taken it all the way up to the Illinois Supreme Court if
necessary), and passed a statute ending all automatic pay hikes for
future General Assemblies.
Instead, Illinoisans got a half-hearted song and dance that could
end with raises for politicians as their constituents can’t find
jobs.
This entire drama is uncomfortable for rank-and-file Democrats in
Springfield.
Some surely would not have voted to hike their pay this year after
voting for a $1,600 pay hike last year, which Pritzker signed into
law. They are the fifth-highest paid state lawmakers in the nation –
and the highest paid among any “full-time lite” state lawmakers.
But a failure in leadership means they’re now forced to defend
actions that will not stand up to scrutiny in court.
For the rest of Illinois, make no mistake:
State lawmakers did not protect you from political pay raises.
They just made it harder to follow the money.
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