SPRINGFIELD - As the Illinois House reconvenes Tuesday - four weeks into Fiscal Year 2016 without an agreed upon budget - the governor's office is saying that this is the Democrat-controlled legislature's last chance to stop the upcoming legislator pay raise of $1350.
"As we approach the end of the month, Speaker Madigan and the politicians he controls have one final chance to side with Republicans and make a clean up or down vote on stopping themselves from getting an automatic pay increase" said Lance Trover of Governor Rauner's office.
"After passing a $4 billion unbalanced budget and refusing to work with Governor Rauner on turning this state around, the last thing the Speaker and his allies deserve is a pay raise. That is why the Speaker should call up the Republican bill - without any poison pills or gimmicks - that will stop him and the politicians he controls from receiving a pay raise."
State Rep. Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield) is in full agreement with the governor's criticism.
"If the House members were getting paid according to the job we've done, we'd be getting a pay cut, not a raise," Batinick said Monday.
Last week when the House met, Representative Ron Sandack led a House Republican effort to block automatic pay raises that members of the General Assembly will receive this week. In May, House Republicans filed HB 4225, which would have prohibited automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for lawmakers in FY16.
The Democrat leadership kept the effort in the House Rules Committee and it was never scheduled for a hearing.
Sandack tried for the third time with a procedural floor vote to bypass committee and get a roll call on HB 4225, which would stop the automatic two percent cost-of-living pay raises. The Democratic super-majority blocked the effort.
When the speaker was asked about it at last week’s press conference, he said, ‘Well, they promote a lot of things. But I’ve spoken to the question, I don’t plan to speak to it any further.’
If HB 4225 is not passed to the governor's desk this week, lawmakers will see their two percent raises in their August 1st paychecks.
