* In the past seven days, both House Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon have been interviewed on Brian Mackey’s radio show The 21st. Here’s Speaker Welch being grilled on legislator pay…

Mackey: One of those things that [Republicans] have criticized, or at least some have criticized, are salary increases for lawmakers. Last year, I believe the base salary for a state legislator was just under $73,000. Now it’s going to be or is more than $89,000. How do you justify that to taxpayers?

Welch: Well, first of all, let me say Republicans were criticizing it, but I don’t know any of them have rejected the pay raises. Why is that? Because many of them thanked me years ago when I filed a lawsuit against Governor Rauner and his then comptroller for illegally stopping our pay. Many of them quietly were coming to me thanking me. Many of them are thanking me known for standing by court decisions that say it’s unconstitutional to waive the COLA. We are going to follow the law. We’re going to honor our Constitution. And that’s what we’re doing. That’s another point that I wanted to make about Republicans finding one or two things to come up with a talking point and criticize, rather than vote for something that they know is constitutionally sound that’s balanced, that lifts up every single community across the state that actually has a number of things in it that they fought for.

Mackey: I should tell listeners in a previous iteration of my journalistic career I wrote a column and I’ve argued in the past that higher pay for lawmakers might be something worth considering because otherwise you get a legislature instead of sort of more everyday working people it’s filled with real estate agents and bankers and other people with jobs where they can take significant time off. But a 22 percent increase in six months. Can you, again, to the worker out there who is not enjoying that level of pay raise in the past six months, how do you justify that?

Welch: Let me first level-set. What recently happened was the legislature did receive its annual COLA increase back in January for the first time since 2007. The 102nd General Assembly approved raises for state legislators, constitutional officers for everyone in state office for the first time since 2007. As you have written about Brian in the past, if you’re going to recruit good talent across the state, if you’re going to have good people sign up for these jobs and spend time away from their families week after week, you have to have a competitive salary. And we tried to address that in January in the 102nd General Assembly. And so they raises were voted on by the previous General Assembly for the first time since 2007. I don’t know anyone who has worked in a job and didn’t get a raise since 2007.

Please pardon all transcription errors.

* Same topic with Senate President Harmon…

Mackey: One aspect of [the state budget] that’s got a lot of attention has been salary increases for lawmakers. I think it was just last year the base salary for a state legislator was just under $73,000. Now it’s more than $89,000. How do you justify that increase to taxpayers?

Harmon: Well, again, to be clear, that was an increase last year after decades without any statutory increase in the salary. This year, the budget included money to fund the statutory salaries for all officers in the state. No change in that statutory salary. So this was just a routine budget appropriation to satisfy that statutory obligation.

Mackey: But there was a cost of living increase this year.

Harmon: Correct. That’s built into the statutory salary structure. It avoids the difficult decision of what the salary should be?

Mackey: Well over six months, that is a 22 percent increase. If there are people out there, and look as you may know, I’ve written about there may be justifiable reasons to have higher salaries for lawmakers if you want a legislature that has people who are not just real estate agents and bankers and attorneys and people with jobs where they can take time off. But a 22 percent increase in six months I imagine will strike some listeners as quite a lot.

Harmon: I understand the question, it is always a difficult issue. If we never dealt with legislative pay increases, as unpleasant as they are, we would still be being paid several hundred dollars, which, you know, going back to the beginning of the General Assembly. So you have to make those calculations along the way. I think the bigger question is one you alluded to. Should we maintain a part time legislature? Or have we reached the point where we really are a full time legislature and should be compensated as such?

Mackey: What do you think the answer to that is?

Harmon: I think it’s a conversation worth having. I have always put great stock in a citizen legislature where people bring their real life expertise to the Capitol and and we pass better legislation because people have those experiences. But I’m also caught by the the conflicts that inevitably arise when people are juggling their public service and their private occupations.

Discuss.