* Mark Brown on the lawsuit filed by six legislators over delayed lawmaker paychecks…
We can’t allow the executive branch of government to illegally use personal economic coercion to make the legislative branch fall in line on policy disputes, even if sticking it to politicians makes everyone feel good. […]
As somebody who has tried to illuminate the plight of the little people getting mistreated by the state’s failure to pass a budget, I can appreciate there’s a certain appearance of fairness in treating elected officials as poorly as other state vendors are being treated.
Rauner piled on the paycheck issue again Monday, calling the lawsuit “frivolous” and an “insult to taxpayers.”
“Only in Illinois would politicians who have failed to pass a balanced budget put their own personal gain before taxpayers and critical human services,” Rauner said.
This from a man who reported an adjusted gross income of $188 million to the IRS for 2015, a year in which he was the full-time governor of Illinois. And we’re supposed to be impressed he voluntarily refuses his state salary. […]
Despite all Rauner’s money, I think the governor appreciates how withholding six months pay squeezes lawmakers to bend to his will. They’ll go broke long before he will.
Go read the whole thing.
…Adding… Related…
* Bruce-ters Billions
- Curious - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:26 am:
Pitch perfect
- Anon221 - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:33 am:
“Only in Illinois would a governor who has failed to submit a balanced budget put his own personal gain before taxpayers and critical human services,” Fake Rauner said.
Fixed. It.
******
It is going to take multiple levels of legal issues to bring Rauner into line. Mendoza has stated that she will follow Rauner’s game plan as implemented by Munger until the court(s) tell her otherwise. I don’t like it, but it’s necessary to throw harsh sunlight on Rauner’s manipulations of the State Constitution. He’s got to learn that money, or the withholding of said same, cannot buy you everything.
- Boat captain - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:33 am:
I can’t understand why Mendoza already tipped her hand on the issue. The law is the law. She should have sidestepped the issue for a while. I can appreciate her sentiment on the issue. A bad start for her. It’s time for the courts to step in and settle this.
- Rocky Rosi - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:36 am:
The state elected officials work for the people. The state needs to pay its debts and pay the social services providers that help the needy first before elected officials get paid. #PayILfirst
- Not It - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:41 am:
Boat Captain - I assume that was snark, right? You aren’t seriously confused why Mendoza would tip her hand on something that polls incredibly well and to which she actually ran several campaign ads on, are you?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:42 am:
Nice work by Mr. Brown.
To the Post,
Because something is “popular, it doesn’t make it legal or constitutional.
I’m glad Rich kept this in the Post…
===They’ll go broke long before he will.===
Ball Game.
Rauner feels comfortable that monetarily squeezing the legislators, personally, they WILL vote against Labor, for the Rauner Tax, and be willing to vote for Term Limits, something no legislative body in America voted upon themselves.
Sounds great, no?
No. It’s not great or constitutional.
When Leslie Munger’s chief of staff decided to “reassess” and continue to withhold pay, Leslie Munger mocked her oath, and made a complete joke of her belief in the Illinois Constitution.
The lawsuit is the stain that Munger decided her own oath meant nothing.
Mendoza, fresh off taking the oath will begin by mocking her own oath and making a joke her swearing to uphold the constitution? Bruce Rauner hopes so. Remember, Rauner has “others” (state party, “ck”, Yaffe, et al) say the ridiculousness as gospel, and hope no one calls them, not really Rauner, on the embarrassing.
Also note, the more members that “leave”, move on, etc, in either party, Rauner takes that as winning, like a CEO pushing out a mid-manager.
The legislature is co-equal, not middle management.
There is a reason there is a constitutional guarantee for pay, and statutes explaining the date… when the pay is to be.
Have we all forgotten it use to be a lump sum for legislators. That was changed to 12 payments, with a date, but still… you guessed it… not to be usurped by Comptroller, Governor, Attorney General… no one.
Follow the constitution. It’s there to protect, not to hamper… unless you think trampling on the protections of co-equal branches is tampering.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:43 am:
In formal Navy officer dining you never toast the President. You toast the constitution.
We have lost a lot of democracy when you favor populism over the rule of law.
To do otherwise is to keep people of middle class means like me out of politics……….yeah okay so maybe you’re definitely for it now….fine. You think you hate Biss. Man wait till you’re hating Honeybear!
- Deft Wing - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:44 am:
–”I can’t understand why Mendoza already tipped her hand on the issue.”–
Tipped her hand? She RAN on the issue! And she’s told all she “can and she will” pay legislators last … which kinda blows up Brown’s argument that it’s all about a rich Republican Governor sticking it to those poor legislators.
- Roman - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:45 am:
Brown pretty much nails it. Politically, it’s a no-brainer: the legislators should get in line.
But, legally, it’s just as clear: Munger/Mendoza are breaking the law.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:46 am:
Take the names out of the equation and it’s a simple separation of powers question.
The executive branch is pulling a cheap Banana Republic abuse of power to catch the populist wave and extort policy considerations from legislators by withholding their pay.
The right and obvious play is to take it to court to get a ruling on the issue.
- Stones - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:47 am:
Rauner is on the popular side, the legislators are absolutely correct in their logic and thinking.
Each branch of government is separate and equal. The former Comptroller clearly attempted to force the Governor’s will on the legislature. Wrong and shameful although I don’t think the public will see it that way.
- Rufus - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:50 am:
100% spot on. Rauner loves to feed the the piranha.
- A Jack - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:54 am:
Shouldn’t the Governor’s staff be given the same treatment? Some get paid twice as much as GA member.
- A guy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:55 am:
One of the many, many reasons that’s courts exist and a reasonable amount of insulation is there to help them resist populism. The other two powers (Exec and Legislative) are tethered to a rock. That rock is the court.
- Anon - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:55 am:
They should get paid. Anyone want to guess what time the JT email is coming today? I’ll say 3:45.
- northsider (the original) - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:56 am:
Why isn’t Governor Fairness in court demanding that state employee checks be held up the same way?
- Emily Miller - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:57 am:
Our elected officials come from the electorate, and the electorate doesn’t have the luxury of forgoing a paycheck. I’ve long found this disturbing– the notion that a person who is so rich they don’t need a paycheck or a pension is more honorable than a person who relies on a paycheck to make ends meet.
I find nothing particularly honorable about living a life so disconnected from the people one represents.
- Chucktownian - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:58 am:
Stop paying all of them, Mendoza. That’ll fix it real quick.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:02 am:
===Stop paying all of them, Mendoza. That’ll fix it real quick.===
Ugh.
There is nothing arbitrary in the decision for the comptroller paying the legislative, judicial, and even the executive branches.
Even for a second you (collectively, not any individual) believe the constitutional authority of the Comptroller is deciding the pay of co-equal branches is under the Office’s prevue and discretion, then you (collectively, not indivdually) are ignoring the Illinois constitution. Period.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:05 am:
Brown and Democrats are overreacting. It’s just politics, jobs everybody has chosen. The governor doesn’t know anything about political attacks. He’s too busy governin’, tryin’ to bring back jobs. Doin’ the people’s bidness.
- (un)Happy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:08 am:
Put aside all political opinions and consider… Do we really want half of the general assembly to be distracted by whether they can pay their bills during this critical time? Or do we want focused representation at the capitol? They should be paid; not just for their benefit, but for the good of the State.
- Cubs in '16 - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:11 am:
===Shouldn’t the Governor’s staff be given the same treatment? Some get paid twice as much as GA member.===
The amount they make isn’t the issue. The GA is being singled out because they, along with the Governor, are responsible for passing a budget. The Gov’s staff aren’t tasked with that so it makes no sense to withhold their salaries in a tit-for-tat. I guess Mendoza could withhold Rauner’s $1 but it would be just as unconstitutional.
- TJ - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:18 am:
== jobs everyone has chosen ==
The jobs legislators “chose” and were elected to came with a monthly salary.
- Arock - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:19 am:
All this talk about it being a constitutional issue and we haven’t had a budget that meets the constitutional requirement for how long? Should all these legislators that voted for the unconstitutional budgets in the past be barred from holding office?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:27 am:
===Should all these legislators that voted for the unconstitutional budgets in the past be barred from holding office?===
Your dorm room silliness is only funnier than you “get off my lawn” mentality.
Governors and legislators passed and signed, signed and passed budgets, and while ALL these elected officials have caused significant damage to Illinois in its totality, focus on what’s at play HERE, and realize those budgets have hurt Illinois, the reality is Rauner’s guideline budget and the Democrats’ budgets since 2015 have all been questionable too.
Holding pay? That’s not questionable.
- Plutocrat03 - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:28 am:
‘Came with a monthly salary’
It also came with an expectation that there would be a constitutionally required balanced budget. Outwardly there seems little interest in moving toward a solution by the legislators. How about some meetings with the leadership to move things along.
- A Jack - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:28 am:
The Governor’s staff advise him in putting together a balanced budget and have failed in that task. So they can be just as much at fault as any single GA member.
Either the Governor’s staff should share the pain or pay everyone as the Constitution requires.
- A Jack - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:32 am:
The Governor’s staff’s job is to help him present a balanced budget and have failed in that endeavor. So their pay should be delayed as well.
Or do as the Constitution requires and pay everyone.
- A guy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:38 am:
Maybe it’s time to cease speaking about anyone’s pay being withheld. I think so.
- Touré's Latte - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:41 am:
I wonder if Mendoza’s eye got tired winking at legislators about not paying them and getting sued for it.
Meh, maybe not so much.
- Original Rambler - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:42 am:
I don’t understand how it is that the AG hasn’t gone to court to stop employee paychecks now that the election is over. The thinness of the State’s FLSA argument should just be waning over time. I’d love to know what the status of the State’s “efforts” is to separate FLSA covered from FLSA exempt. I mean, it should be pretty clear that agency directors are not covered; how about stopping their paychecks? Heck, that’s something Mendoza can do on her own. Put a little pressure on the Governor’s appointees as well as the GA members. It’s time to put a stop to this BS FLSA contention and force the GO and the GA to agree to a budget.
- Annonin' - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:45 am:
“Rauner is on the popular side, the legislators are absolutely correct in their logic and thinking.”
This is only true if don’t see withholding pay to get your way, get your goofy 1%er “reforms”. Otherwise the G calls it extortion.
Still wondrin’ why media let Munger get away with it so long
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:51 am:
===Still wondrin’ why media let Munger get away with it so long ===
Maybe you coulda done something about that?
Just askin…
- Union Man - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:55 am:
Labor is labor. If one group is not getting paid, no one should get paid. I wish they would stop paying state employees and force the issue.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:56 am:
===Still wondrin’ why media let Munger get away with it so long===
The Democratic messaging is around, it’s just on a floppy disc somewhere.
When the Democrats decide to engage in the process of forward messaging, proactively, that would be… “fun”
To the “Adding”
It’s swell… it needs to be pushed hard and messaged outwardly more, but it’s a swell start.
Writing it is half, the other half is selling it.
With respect.
- walker - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 10:59 am:
Original Rambler: Exactly. The legal justification to pay state employees without a budget was thin in the first place, and temporary by its nature. There was a commitment to fix the FSLA hang up long before now. The legal route to stop payments is here. The political will is not yet clear.
- Anon - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 11:03 am:
Notice how nervous Bruce gets when someone mentions stopping the employee payroll. He’s clearly afraid of it. Whenever he praises state employees as hard workers who deserve to be paid you know he’s hiding something.
- Arock - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 11:09 am:
OW- Sorry I thought they made a pledge to follow the State Constitution, if they are incapable of doing so they need to go elsewhere as they have led the State down the s**t hole and the people of the State are the ones paying the price.
- A Jack - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 11:15 am:
The Governor and former Comptroller made the same pledge to uphold the constitution including Article IV section 11.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 11:15 am:
- Arock -
When those budgets were passed, the governors signed them, as they passed the legislature. All sides partaking in a process all sides went at and completed thinking the work passed constitutional muster, and staff and legal concurring.
Capiche?
“Do you understand?”
Here we are, and now the issue today is the unconstitutional way the pay is being usurped.
There IS no budget, but there’s a stopgap.
If you want to make a case the stopgap isn’t constitutional, monk me will stop you…
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 11:16 am:
“no one will stop you”
- illini - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 11:16 am:
Thank you, Rich - the link to “Bruce-ters Billions” puts many of these discussions in perspective.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 11:21 am:
“the notion that a person who is so rich they don’t need a paycheck or a pension is more honorable than a person who relies on a paycheck to make ends meet”
The irony is that the governor apparently made so much money from government employee pensions that he doesn’t need a pension himself.
- JackD - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 12:19 pm:
The governor’s position on pensions was popular too. The courts, however, found it unconstitutional. This is just a repeat of that dynamic. The governor wants the suit dropped because he knows that withholding legislators’ pay is likely to be ruled unconstitutional too. This business of co-equal branches just doesn’t compute for the CEO mentality.
- Thoughts Matter - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 12:39 pm:
Isn’t it sad that back in the Stone Age of newspapers,no TV and no internet, real government happened - while now that we have instant communication, no governing occurs? It’s been replaced by tweets.
- Original Rambler - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 12:58 pm:
More on topic, what prevents Mendoza from announcing that she has done a study of which State employees are exempt from the FLSA and started with those positions listed in the Civil Administrative Code - agency directors and assistant directors who just happen to all be Rauner appointees. She has determined that they are exempt and so she will stop their paychecks immediately due to the lack of an appropriation. Not put them in line with other vendors but stopped. That would double the pain Rauner wants to be imposed on the GA upon his own appointees. I don’t know exactly what the Court’s order says and Mendoza may have to go to court to get this done but it seems doable and a start to putting some pressure on the Administration to get a budget deal done.
- ArchPundit - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 12:59 pm:
Article IV Section 11
SECTION 11. COMPENSATION AND ALLOWANCES
A member 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.
(Source: Illinois Constitution.)
There is a reason one branch cannot change the compensation of another branch and that is to maintain the separation of power. The US Constitution has similar requirements.
For those who fancy themselves strict constructionists, you might think about what you are advocating in denying legislators pay. It was wrong when Quinn tried. It was wrong when Blagojevich tried it with judges. It’s wrong now. It is an attempt at coercion by another branch.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 2:58 pm:
== All this talk about it being a constitutional issue and we haven’t had a budget that meets the constitutional requirement for how long? ==
As presented, the past budgets were balanced. Everybody just winked at the questionable savings and revenue assumptions. And as long as no one officially challenged the numbers, they met the constitutional mandate for a balanced. Whether we like it or not, the framers of the 1970 State Constitution left a big loophole in the law … which they could have closed since they were very specific in certain areas.
- Quintessential - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 5:38 pm:
Brown’s argument is weak. The unclean hands standard applies here. The state constitution also requires Illinois to honor its pension obligations as a binding contract…but you don’t see the General Assembly fulfilling its constitutional obligations there.
- Quintessential - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 5:50 pm:
==There is a reason one branch cannot change the compensation of another branch and that is to maintain the separation of power.==
‘Changes’ refers to legislators increasing and/or decreasing their own salaries during the term in which they were serving (to prevent them from attempting to benefit/punish themselves and other members). That’s not a separation of powers issue - it’s a self-regulatory issue.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 6:34 pm:
== The state constitution also requires Illinois to honor its pension obligations as a binding contract…but you don’t see the General Assembly fulfilling its constitutional obligations there. ==
They are meeting the court ruling of “paying the pensions when due.” As long as they meet that criteria, they are compliant. As the court said in IFT, there is no constitutional guarantee on HOW the pensions get funded.
- Facts are stubborn things - Tuesday, Dec 6, 16 @ 9:56 pm:
We are a land of laws and not emotions. The legislature should be paid. I would enjoy them not being paid, but that is not how it works…might be me next time.
- ArchPundit - Wednesday, Dec 7, 16 @ 9:59 am:
===‘Changes’ refers to legislators increasing and/or decreasing their own salaries during the term in which they were serving (to prevent them from attempting to benefit/punish themselves and other members). That’s not a separation of powers issue - it’s a self-regulatory issue.
The ruling in Cullerton v Quinn disagrees with you.
Judge: Governor Quinn invites this court to consider statements made during the 1970 Constitutional Convention in construing the word “changes.” This court declines to do so. It would only be proper to consider the debates… if there was doubt as to the common meaning of “changes.”
- Seymourkid - Wednesday, Dec 7, 16 @ 10:27 am:
What will Rauner do if the GA passes term limits on the Governor’s office and not any other office?