In the News

Pioneer Press, May 23, 2008

Most suburban state legislators say taking the 11.7 percent raise recommended by the state Compensation Review Board would be incongruous in a struggling economy -- especially before an election.

"It just seems irresponsible to even be talking about the possibility of giving us more money when we have the financial constraints everywhere else," said State Sen. Pamela Althoff, R-26th, noting that the austerity budget now being prepared in Springfield is likely to cut out pay raises for thousands of state employees.

"Those service providers ... you take care of them before you take care of yourself," said Crystal Lake's Althoff, seeking her second term.

"It's like being a parent: Don't you care for your children before you take care of your own needs?"

Legislators -- and about 1,200 mostly high-level government employees -- receive the recommended raises, by law, unless they vote to reject or modify them. The state house voted overwhelmingly against the raises May 7, and this week, senators were waiting to see whether the bill escaped rules committee before the voting period expires. The exact expiration date, sources say, now depends on a legal opinion by the state senate's lawyers.

Among house members with suburban districts, only Highland Park Rep. Karen May, D-58th, and Chicago's Bob Molaro, D-21th, and Speaker Mike Madigan voted not to support the bill of Hoffman Estates Rep. Fred Crespo, D-44th, to reject the report's recommended raises.

May said she would have voted with the majority, but she pressed the wrong button.

Senate Rules Committee Chairman Rickey Hendon, D-5th, has vowed to keep the bill tied up, but Senate President Emil Jones said Thursday he would talk to Hendon about letting it come to a vote.

If Jones really means it, the vote will happen, Sen. Terry Link, D-30, said Thursday, May 22.

"Rickey is the chairman, but If Emil wants this out of Rules, and Rickey doesn't let it out of Rules, Rickey will be the former chairman of rules," The Waukegan senator said.

The 7 percent recommended boost in base pay, from $65,353 to $70,022 (as of July 1 -- it would rise another 4 percent to $72,985 a year from then) would be added to the 10 percent raise legislators accepted two years ago. The review board's members are appointed by legislative leaders.

For senators, the discussion became personal earlier this month. Hendon, D-5th, of Chicago, called the chief anti-raise senator, Susan Garrett, D-29th, "the esteemed senator from Richville," a Lake Forest millionaire who doesn't need her salary or $125-per-day expense money.

"My husband works, and we actually use my salary to pay the mortgage," Garrett said Thursday. She added that she gave her last raise to charity.

Several supporters of the raise -- and others who don't talk about it -- have districts with substantial Chicago territory. Garrett said that's not surprising.

"I have a primary and a general election that are always extremely difficult," she said. "Chicago has a different type of politics."

While Althoff uses child care for a pay-raise metaphor, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, D-4th, said May 20 that she wanted the raise literally to care for her son.

Lightford, a 10-year senator, said her family costs keep rising, but noted that legislators voted to reject raises in 2002, 2004 and 2006.

"I'm a single parent, and I want to give my son a decent education," said Lightford, referring to her 6-year old boy, who attends a Maywood parochial school.

"Many members are attorneys or in real estate or their husbands are wealthy or they have wealth in the family. I'm a single parent and that is my second job," Lightford said.

"I understand that, and my response is that the people of Illinois by constitutional mandate have a part-time General Assembly," said Don Harmon, D-39th, a raise opponent, who practices law back home in Oak Park.

Despite the mandate, a recent study indicated less than half the state's lawmakers claim a second job. They typically work four months a year, though in 2007, it was closer to 11.

Molaro didn't return calls, and the Speaker's press secretary, Steve Brown, maintained last week he hadn't talked to Madigan before the vote, and saw no reason to explore the issue now that it had moved to the upper chamber.

Reps. Kevin Joyce, D-35th, Chicago, and Jim Brosnahan, D-36th, Oak Lawn, both voted present, and didn't return calls.

The state senator in their area, Edward Maloney, D-18th, Chicago, also didn't call back to talk about his position. Chicago Sen. Ira Silverstein, D-8th, Elgin Sen. Mike Noland, D-22nd, and Grayslake Sen. Michael Bond, D-31st, didn't return calls seeking comment on the issue, either.

All Republican senators agreed to co-sponsor Garrett's senate version of Crespo's bill, as did Evanston's Jeff Schoenberg, D-9th, and Dan Kotowski, D-33rd, of Park Ridge.

Link didn't sign up, saying in early May that he wanted the Senate to vote, but he hadn't decided which way he'd go.

Link said last Thursday that now is "the wrong time to take a raise."

Sen. Jim DeLeo, D-10th, of Chicago, agreed.

"I'm not taking food stamps, and I'm not voting for a raise," he laughed Thursday, referring to Jones' earlier riposte that "I need to get me some food stamps," uttered as he passed a knot of reporters interviewing Garrett. Jones, of Chicago, has supported the raise.

"With a struggling economy and these shortfalls in our budget, we should not be looking at raises for ourselves," DeLeo said.

"I just think in this economic climate -- when the state starts to string out its payments (to creditors), it's kind of unconscionable" to accept a raise, said Long Grove Sen. Bill Peterson, R-26, retiring from the Senate next year after 26 years in Springfield.

Some legislators say the 25-year-old system is wrongheaded because it allows lawmakers to get more pay without voting. But few try hard to change it.

Rep. Jim Durkin, R-82nd, has sponsored successive failed bills that would force him and his colleagues to vote for their raises.

He calls the current system "nothing more than legislative sleight-of-hand and an embarrassment. How can we ask people to pay more taxes when we can't be honest with ourselves?"

His bill never gets past the house's rules committee.

"I did it last year, I did it this year, and I'll do it again next year," the Western Springs representative said.

"It's shameful, and it really belittles the integrity of this office."