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Pay raises and widows

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Illinois

The legislative pay raise has been attached to the widows and orphans fund for soliders for weeks, so I’m surprised that it wasn’t really an issue until the Sun-Times splashed the story over the weekend…

On its own, a plan to grant Gov. Blagojevich, his Cabinet, statewide officeholders and rank-and-file lawmakers nearly 10 percent pay raises might as well have had an anvil tied to it.

But tie the politically unpalatable plan to a funding bill that also provided money to the families of deceased soldiers, police officers or firefighters, and the $1.4 million in pay raises are on a fast track to the governor to approve. […]

“It’s just outrageously ludicrous. To hang their pay increase, and it is theirs, on to a bill that has line-of-duty pay for the loss of our sons and daughters in Illinois is just outrageous,” said Jim Frazier, a St. Charles resident whose son Jacob, a member of the Illinois Air National Guard, died while on duty in Afghanistan in 2003.

The program Frazier cited provides survivors of Illinois military members who died while serving in Afghanistan or Iraq payments of $283,130. The funding bill contains $7.7 million for that program.

The idea is to make it politically unpalatable to vote against the pay raises. If a legislator votes “No,” then he or she could be blasted in the upcoming election for voting against the survivor benefits. It is also designed to provide cover for members, who can say that they had no choice in the pay raise matter because they wanted to help out those survivors.

But attaching their salary boost to this particular issue is more than a little reprehensible. Yes, it’s all part of the supplemental funding bill, but this move ought to have some consequences. Considering the way the map was drawn and the likely high Democratic turnout in next year’s presidential race, however, it probably won’t mean all that much.

Discuss.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 8:41 am

Comments

Good grief!!! Our legislators have stooped to a new low! I didn’t think that was possible. You can bet that I’ll be on the phone today and certainly hope everyone else hammers at them for this reprehensible act. These folks are not about doing the peoples business. They have set a new standard for greed. It dishonors the men and women who died for us all. What a pathetic lot they have become.

Comment by Justice Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 8:54 am
Does anyone know what’s the bill number?

Comment by Latham Place Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:03 am
I love it, the legislators continue to cut Human services by not even making up for inflation, yet they manage to take care of themselves.

Comment by independent Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:05 am
Cycle:

1. Lawmakers attach pay raise bill to widow & orphans bill
2. Press howls
3. Voters act all indignant
4. Lawmakers buy off voters with pork
5. Voters re-elect lawmakers

This has happened since the dawn of time.

Why oh why do we complain about this?

Comment by Leroy Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:07 am
The pay raise was approved on a straight party line vote. I suspect Rich is right, however, that there will be few if any consequences at the polls for the legislators who voted for the raise.

Comment by respectful Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:11 am
Is there a name of whoever put this particular pay raise package in with the widows/orphans fund? Whoever did this one deserves some PR and then it will be nice to hear their explanation of how they fit together. If this plan is on fast track for approval maybe the funds for “forgotten” items like social services and DNR should also be tacked on.

Comment by zatoichi Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:11 am
Hey I got another idea for the next IL constitution convention. Items in a bill must be germane to a bill. Keep it on the subject and no more fast ones like this.

Comment by Levois Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:20 am
Levois, there is already a constitutional provision about that. But this was a supplemental approp, so everything was related.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:27 am
This is absolutely sleezy. I hope they are all proud of themselves. Perhaps a con con is necessary just to straighten out these clowns.

Comment by He makes Ryan look like a saint Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 9:28 am
Senate Bill 241; house amendent 2; page 36 and following.

Comment by anonymous Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:23 am
Article IV, Section 8 of the Illinois Constitution provides:

“Bills, except bills for appropriations and for the codification, revision or rearrangement of laws, shall be confined to one subject. Appropriation bills shall be limited to the subject of appropriations.”

Maybe we need to look at better wording for this provision in the Illinois Constitution.

In addition, we really need a full and binding system of initiative, referendum, and recall.

Comment by Squideshi Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 10:37 am
Based upon the miserable perforamnce of the legislature,and the failure to get anything major done, I believe the legislators did not earn a pay raise this session.I generally am supportive of reaonable pay raises for elected and appointed officals, judges, and civil servants.

I shows how ridiculous and skewed the current budget and appropriations process is: the legislators couldn’t agree on electricity rate relief, a budget, or even cost of living/doing business increases for not-for profit agencies contracting with the state, but they managed to take care of themselves somehow.

Comment by Captain America Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:27 am
This post will not permit me to fully express my disgust at our legislature and its disgraceful leaders. But if you think of the worst thing you can think of regarding these so-called public servants, and then multiply it by ten or so, you may be in the ballpark.

Comment by fedup dem Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 11:30 am
I posed what I thought was a legitimate ? last week and it was deleted. I saw some more footage of Emil this weekend and my question remains.
Does he have some type of speech impediment? I feel it is a good Question. Maybe he could get some help and we would be able to understand him.
I have never seen a native public official struggle with English so much. I think you thought that my comment was in some way a racist statement, it was not. I just can’t understand him, literally. If he does have a condition, I am sorry. If he does not then I don’t know what to think other than he must be lazy and stupid. Every time he speaks publicly I am ashamed to be from Illinois condition or not.

Comment by nino brown Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 12:17 pm
I’m saddened by my reaction which is to say that I wasn’t the least surprised when I saw this in the language of the bill.

Comment by illrino Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 12:21 pm
Standard operating procedure to attach something either unpopular like a legislative pay raise to a popular bill or one that just about everyone can support.

So when confronted on the unjustified and undeserved pay raise, the spineless legislator says - I had to vote for the popular bill to get the needed benefits to the people.

As they say, we get the government we tolerate and deserve. (also pay for)

Comment by Anon Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 1:22 pm
How is a legislative pay raise related to the widows and orphans funding?!?! Darn Skippy, we need to address this kind of thing in a con-con.

I would like a specific clause in the state constitution that all legislative pay issues must stand alone as separate bills, never attached to anything, and must be roll-call votes, no exceptions. I call it the” truth in legislative pay” bill. Since everybody has to roll call vote on it, they can’t attack each other with it in elections campaigns unless they themselves are on record as voting down a pay increase. If they want to vote an increase, they’ll have to work harder to justify it to the voters.

Comment by Senator from Naboo Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 1:58 pm
Line item veto!!!

Comment by is anyone really surprised? Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 2:12 pm
SB 241 may have contained a pay raise for legislators, but the “budget fragment” of the House Dems, SB 1132, still had legislative pay at the previous level. So the legislators are going to have to vote again to make their pay raise happen in FY 08. Very amateurish and chaotic session…

Comment by capitol view Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 2:19 pm
I don’t think the house vote was strictly party line, there were at least 2 republican votes.

Comment by anon Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 2:31 pm
sorry, at least one…

Comment by anon Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 2:32 pm
Wow, I hope it’s that easy for the rank and file State of Illinois employees to get raises in their next contracts.

Sorry, we can’t give you 10%, how about 1% ?

Comment by Concerned Voter Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 2:38 pm
Can anyone tell me this….can legislators refuse the increase? Those that say it’s wrong, can’t they just say “I won’t accept it?” Didn’t the gov say that? It would still count toward pensions, right?

Comment by frustrated Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 3:41 pm
I’m one of those rotten middle management state employees. You know - Doing more with less. Been doing two full time jobs for 4 years. Haven’t had a raise in six years. Nice to know the SOB’s in Springfield care!

Comment by silver lining Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 5:20 pm
zatoici, I too would like to know who added this provision to the bill. This is just so disgusting. I would like to see this person get all the publcity they he/she deserves. Is there a way we can find out this information?

Comment by irishmom07 Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 5:54 pm
I hate to throw icewater on the sentimental parade going on here, but aren’t benefits for police and firefighters the responsibility of the municipalities or counties the people work for? And don’t soldiers have the option of purchasing additional life insurance if they’re concerned about what happens to their families if they are killed? How about highway workers killed in the line of duty…they also died for our sake and may leave widows. Are widowers left out? What about normal widows who are left by people who don’t work for the governmet (which usually has better benefits than private industry in these cases, I think)? We’ll just turn them out into the street because we don’t believe the death of their spouse was “worthy” enough. This entire thing is just flag waving.

Comment by NoGiftsPlease Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 6:57 pm
Could something be worked up for the ConCon to punish bad ’sportsmanship’ - suspend lawmakers for so many votes if they use poor/rude language in public, or tie pay raises to anything at all; fine the Governor for threatening a lawmaker, like Jacobs? If it hurt them in the campaign fund, improvement might be seen.

Comment by Cat Monday, Jun 4, 07 @ 7:34 pm
How about pegging legislative salaries to the average individual income of the constituents in each district? This way, legislators would have an incentive to better serve everyone.

Comment by Squideshi Tuesday, Jun 5, 07 @ 9:05 am