Senate Prez to Allow Pay-Raise Vote

1 comment August 12th, 2008

This is a big surprise …

Senate President Emil Jones has promised that he will allow an up-or-down vote on legislative pay raises this week, a spokeswoman confirmed Monday.

Jones, a Chicago Democrat, told Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, Friday that he will give the chamber a chance to accept or reject the raises when senators meet Tuesday and Wednesday in special sessions called by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

“He made a commitment to call the pay raise for an up or down vote,” Garrett said. “I take him at his word on that.”

The decision represents a change for Jones who didn’t want the Senate to have to deal with the pay raise issue until after the November election. Jones spokeswoman Cindy Davidsmeyer said she didn’t know why Jones had a change of heart.

However, she said it wasn’t because of speculation that the pay raises will automatically go into effect Wednesday unless the Senate rejects them. Senate Democrat researchers have determined that Wednesday is not a deadline for the Senate to act, she said.

Jones has refused to allow a vote up to this point. And if the Senate doesn’t vote on whether to accept the raise, then the raise goes into place automatically. Jones had this to say during the spring session when the issue first popped up: “I need a pay raise.”

The state’s comptroller says there’s no money in the budget for pay raises, even if the Senate refuses to vote — or if senators vote to approve the raise, in which case it would go into effect.

Even if the raises are approved, there is no money to give lawmakers, top agency officials and the statewide elected officials a bigger paycheck, said Comptroller Dan Hynes.

Hynes said the legislature didn’t include money for the raises in the budget approved in May.

That may be true, but as the SJ-R story notes it’s not really the point. Though there’s no money in the state budget at this time, if lawmakers decide to vote themselves a pay raise then the raise would be retroactive whenever they get around to making the appropriation — presumably after the November election.

That’s your state government at work: Lawmakers would all get lump-sum checks if they approve (don’t reject) the raise now and then approve the appropriate some time down the road.