SPRINGFIELD – While the Democrats were given all types of accolades for giving giving raising to state employee union workers back in 2011, the Democrat majority in the Illinois House and Senate never found the funds to actually deliver on those raises. Year after year, the state budget was passed with Democrats calling all the budget spending shots – along with a 32% tax hike last year – but somehow the unions' raises were overlooked.
Years passed. Governor Quinn lost re-election in 2014. No pay raises came to fruition. Then Governor Bruce Rauner was elected. Still, with the Democrats in control, union workers didn't get their pay raises.
Until now.
This week, Democrat State Rep. Jerry Costello brought before the Illinois House a bill separate from the state's required annual budget that would catch AFSCME workers up for their never-attained raises.
