Untitled Document
The state legislative pay-raise issue was a big
reason the Illinois Senate Democrats wanted to avoid another prolonged,
bitter overtime session like last year’s and wrap things up by the
May 31 deadline. There was no stomach for another war like the all-out
brawl of 2007, which pitted Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan
against his fellow Democrats Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Senate President Emil
Jones. Rank-and-file legislators desperately wanted to avoid being trapped
in Springfield, and they made that crystal clear to their leaders. But that
pay raise was still a huge factor. The state Compensation Review Board submitted its
pay-increase recommendations on April 30. Under state law, both chambers
had to vote to reject the proposal within 30 session days or the raises
would automatically take effect. The House voted to reject the
board’s recommendation almost immediately. As in the past, the Senate Democrats decided that the
House was a collection of wimps. They wanted their pay raises, and Senate
President Jones refused numerous entreaties to bring the proposal up for a
floor vote. Jones also quickly canceled some session days in May. Jones was, in reality, “banking” session
days. The last time the Compensation Review Board
recommended pay hikes was 2006. The General Assembly adjourned in May that
year and didn’t return until November, so the Senate was able to
postpone action on the report until after the November elections —
because the “clock” on their 30 session days’ deadline
didn’t expire until then. The Senate never voted to reject the
raises, so they automatically kicked in. The plan worked to perfection. It
was almost completely politically painless. However, a long, drawn-out overtime session this
summer would have run out that 30-day clock pretty fast, so the hugely
unpopular (with voters) pay raises would almost undoubtedly take effect
before this November’s election. The Senate could have just voted to
reject the raises during a summer overtime session, but the chamber’s
top Democratic leaders had obviously made the pay hikes a top priority.
They went out of their way to publicly skewer dissident members of the
rank-and-file, such as Sen. Susan Garrett, who have demanded that they
forgo the pay bump. The Senate Democrats are convinced that the second
national Republican meltdown in two years, combined with a Barack Obama
presidential candidacy, will insulate their members from voter retaliation,
even though voters are beyond angry. An Ask Illinois poll taken last month
revealed that more voters believe that George Ryan would do a better job
running the state than Rod Blagojevich. The mind boggles. You might think that the antics of the Senate
Democratic leadership during the failure of the recall issue, piled on top
of the pay-raise debacle, added to their staunch support of a governor who
is currently losing a public-opinion battle to a federal prisoner would
give them pause. But the leadership has shown no fear, at least not in
public.
If that pay-raise clock had started ticking loudly
during yet another spectacularly disastrous summer overtime session,
rank-and-file Senate Democrats would have freaked out in a very big way.
Obama or no Obama, they’d have been absolutely pummeled by their
constituents and the press. The pay raise would probably have to be
rejected under that scenario, which wouldn’t make the Senate’s
leaders happy at all. So the best way for the Senate Democrats to make sure
they got their pay raises was to forge a quick budget resolution with the
House, which would allow them to get out of town. If Blagojevich decides that the budget is no good or
wants the General Assembly to return to town to deal with the capital
construction plan this summer, Jones will have to demand that the governor
not call them into repeated special sessions and instead allow the
legislative leaders to get together to hash things out among themselves
without chewing up precious session days. The governor should be expected
to go along with Jones, his only remaining ally, but this is Blagojevich
we’re talking about.
Rich Miller
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily
political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2008.
