Attitude adjustment: Rauner signs bill axing pay raises for Illinois lawmakers

No budget, no raise.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has barred pay raises for Illinois lawmakers this year, signing House Bill 576 into law on Aug. 13. The raises would have ranged between $1,300 and $1,900.

So ends one of the most intriguing political dramas of the summer.

It began when the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1354 – a budget bill – on June 26. One week later, on July 1, the governor issued an amendatory veto that would OK the budget bill if the General Assembly accepted additional language that would prohibit cost-of-living raises, as well as increases to lawmakers’ per diem payments for when they are in session.

But those changes were not accepted by the General Assembly, and the bill died.

Then, House Speaker Mike Madigan, D-Chicago, filed an amendment to House Bill 576 on July 28 to stop the raises. The Illinois House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 101-1 shortly after. A week later, on Aug. 5, the Illinois Senate sent the bill to the governor’s desk on a 49-2 vote.

“This bill is just another effort to meet the governor halfway,” Madigan said on the House floor.

But the move was clearly an empty play for political points in the wake of bad press and a frustrated public, as Madigan had been blocking Republican legislation to stop the pay raises for weeks.

House Bill 4225, filed in May by state Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, would have stopped lawmaker pay raises for the current fiscal year. The bill was deliberately stalled in the Madigan-controlled Rules Committee. State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, filed a bill on July 9 that would halt lawmaker pay altogether until a budget is passed. That bill also sits in the Rules Committee.

Some may be wondering why any such legislation is needed in the first place. How are lawmakers set to receive pay, much less pay raises, without a state budget?

Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, put the state in this position. In 2014 the two politicians pushed legislation ensuring lawmaker salaries, operating expenses and pay increases would be allocated through a “continuing appropriation,” meaning they must be specifically prohibited for a given year for the payments to stop.

Rauner was right when he vetoed pay raises and is right again in signing the bill to stop them. Illinois lawmakers are overpaid and underperforming.

Even though the General Assembly only meets part time, Illinois lawmakers make an average of $81,000 a year. Taxpayers also contribute more than $100,000 to lawmaker pensions for every active lawmaker enrolled in the General Assembly Retirement System.

Now that this fight has ended, it’s time for state politicians to get down to business and put Illinois’ finances in order – the General Assembly must also make time to pass meaningful reform that will right the state’s economy.

If it doesn’t, more and more Illinoisans will be left jobless under the same status-quo state policies.