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EXELON
LOBBYISTS PUSHES $14.4 MILLION PAYDAY FOR SPRINGFIELD LAWMAKERS
Illinois Policy Institute/
Patrick Andriesen
The Illinois General Assembly voted for a
decade to eliminate annual cost-of-living adjustments for lawmaker
salaries after the Great Recession. Now, former state lawmakers are
suing the state to put that money right back into politicians’ pockets. |
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 An Exelon lobbyist representing a former Illinois lawmaker sued
the state to secure a $14.4 million payday for legislators just before the vote
on a ratepayer-funded bailout for Exelon’s nuclear plants.
Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza is the defendant and said the lawsuit
seeking a decade of previously rejected cost-of-living back pay for Springfield
politicians was a “slap in the face for taxpayers.”
Springfield lawyer-lobbyist Eric Madiar is representing former state Rep.
Michael Fortner, R-West Chicago, in a class-action lawsuit alleging Illinois
lawmakers unconstitutionally voted to deny themselves cost-of-living salary
adjustments between 2009 and 2019. The case filed June 1 in Cook County Circuit
Court aims to recoup 10 years of cost-of-living raises and salary-lowering
furlough days for all former and current lawmakers who served during the decade.
 Analysis by the Illinois General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting
and Accountability found if Fortner’s case prevails, Illinoisans will be on the
hook for at least $14.4 million in foregone cost-of-living pay raises, not
taking into account legislator stipends for committee chair positions or the
cost to legislative pensions.
Mendoza’s office found $2.8 million of these funds would go to the 177 currently
sitting lawmakers in the Illinois House and Senate. The remainder would be paid
out to retired members of the general assembly, such as Fortner.
A legislative analysis obtained by WBEZ estimates a retired House member who
served from 2010 to 2019 stands to earn more than a $71,000 payment. If that
member served in a leadership position during that time, they could expect to
receive nearly a $90,000 pay day.
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“I think it’s very clear from a right-and-wrong
perspective that these individuals really pulled a scam on
taxpayers, and it makes me sick,” Mendoza said, referring to
lawmakers who previously voted to eliminate their legislative
cost-of-living allowances and are now looking to cash in from the
lawsuit. Fortner himself voted to suspend his cost-of-living
adjustment seven times while in office.
Fortner’s lawsuit was filed after an April ruling by a Cook County
judge determined laws freezing legislative salaries between 2009 and
2016 violated the Illinois Constitution, which prohibits lawmakers
from changing their pay during their current term.
Cook County Judge Allen Price Walker ruled these
laws violated the state constitution. He found former Democratic
state senators Michael Noland, of Elgin, and James Clayborne, of
Belleville, were entitled to a combined $160,000 in back payments
for cost-of-living adjustments and furlough days. Both men
repeatedly voted against the raises and trumpeted their sacrifices
as being in solidarity with struggling taxpayers.
However, Walker stipulated the ruling only applied to Noland and
Clayborne because they filed their lawsuit as individuals – not as
public officials.
“This court cannot enter an order directing (Mendoza) to pay all
members of the General Assembly,” Walker wrote.
Fortner’s lawsuit against the state comptroller looks to do exactly
that.
The Illinois General Assembly returned to Springfield June 15 to
vote on a new clean energy bill that would provide $694 million in
ratepayer-funded subsidies for the three nuclear power plants owned
by Exelon in Illinois.
Exelon stated that it has no interest or involvement in Fortner’s
lawsuit, and that Madiar is not representing the former lawmaker on
the company’s behalf
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