The Capitol Fax Blog » On pay raises and making things worse

Monday, May 12, 2008

* The Sun-Times editorializes today on the sorry spectacle surrounding the pay raise votes…

But all this squabbling over a pay raise serves only to underscore the buffoonery that passes for the state legislative process these days.

State lawmakers should be required to actively vote themselves a pay raise — up or down. Forget this nonsense of raises that kick in automatically unless they are voted down.

In the real world, a pay raise comes with a job well done.

Nobody in Springfield is doing any kind of a job.

* Meanwhile, the Civic Federation blasts the governor’s job performance today…

Gov. Blagojevich is biting off more than state government can chew in his proposed 2008-09 budget, an independent analysis of his $49.7 billion spending plan concludes.

The state simply cannot afford $1.9 billion in new and expanded initiatives the governor wants — including a $300 per-child tax credit and expansion of state health insurance programs, according to the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan research group that includes Chicago-area business leaders.

The federation’s 62-page budget report — released today at www.civicfed.org — also criticizes the governor’s plan to lease the state lottery to finance a $25 billion statewide construction program.

In addition, the federation says several business tax proposals that the governor claims would generate $722 million are bad for the state’s overall fiscal health.

Read the full report at this link.

* The administration responds…

A spokeswoman for the governor’s budget office said the Civic Federation failed to take into account that state government provides important services. And the report offered no ideas on keeping those services in place during a bad economic cycle, the spokeswoman said.

What the “report fails to recognize is that there is a huge human aspect to what government does,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Katherine Ridgway said. “We would like to hear the federation’s ideas on how the state can really help people during the national economic downturn.”

I’d like to hear how the governor plans to get his programs passed first. Just having bright, shiny ideas (or rehashed, old ideas) doesn’t mean squat unless you can pass them. So far, the track record hasn’t been great. I doubt voters believe he deserves a pay raise, either.

* Related…

* Our Opinion: Selling state assets no way to fund projects

* One voice of reason amid pay-raise debate

* Our Opinion: Hard to justify pay hike for lawmakers

- posted by Rich Miller

25 Comments

- Ghost - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:01 am:
” And the report offered no ideas on keeping those services in place during a bad economic cycle…”

The Gov press people should read the report, this is an untrue statement. The report supports cuttin certain govt programs; it supports the special fund sweep; and while it is currently opposed to an income tax increase, this is based upon a lack of identified programs and time period. it appears they would support a tax increase if certain conditions were met.

- Northside Bunker - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:09 am:
If Blagojevich wants a raise maybe he can have facility maintenance raise/adjust his chair.
Actually Blagojevich should take a pay cut like he’s done to so many rank & file state employees.

- One of the 35 - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:22 am:
The point is very well taken. The use of the word, “buffoonery” is an apt description of the process. Legislators should be required to clearly vote yea or nay on their raises. Not play games. It is another example of bad state government. Shame on us for electing people who continue to play such games.

- Policy from the Right - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:24 am:
So, we are suppose to believe the conservative Civic Federation, whose goal is: tax breaks for the wealthy; kick out the homeless, and protect their wealth.

The only person that deserves a pay increase is Speaker Madigan. His Do NOTHING shows that he only has one concern and that is himself.

- VanillaMan - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:27 am:
So are you happy?

Voters are not stupid. They know what they want. But they have not been smart in that they have empowered only one political party to run the entire state in the hope that what they want will come to them.

You want a healthy business climate? You want a good education for your children? You want to see working people survive? You want clean air, water and streets?

We don’t have these things, do we? Yet voters continue to elect Democrats promising these results, but failing. Every state office is stuffed with a Democrat. The General Assembly is controlled by Democrats. See any efficiencies? See any agreements? Is government running any smoother?

The Illinois Democrats have failed miserably. Although they make good promises, their belief in controlling a government to effect these good promises is a false one.

Out of all the state and national Illinois Democrats holding office, only Durbin, Hynes, Giannoulais, and White have proven they can do their jobs. The rest are either failures or too busy running for the next rung on the political ladder to have ever done their jobs.

But they make pretty promises and voters who have nothing else to lose, or were raised a Democrat, or still believe what their college professors told them, still keep these people in power. And us at their mercy.

So are you happy yet?

- Leave a light on George - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:37 am:
Northside Bunker - What Blago has done to rank and file state employees is drive most of them to unions. Then the gov has bought the union leadership off with great pay raises. If you are a union employee under this gov (and you haven’t been laid off or been transfered to CMS)your paycheck has grown. Yes working conditions suck, your understaffed and your new boss doesn’t know the first thing about your agency or its mission but your paycheck is substantially higher. The state employees who are getting the shaft while legislators give themselves a raise are management. Many have gotten little or no raise since Blago was elected and trust me the work load has increased.

- GoBearsss - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:47 am:
Key point about the civic fed report -

They didn’t oppose the lottery concession on principle. They opposed doing it before there was an agreed upon spending plan.

What they object to is the per-legislator or per-caucus allocation for random projects in the district.

That seems like a cop-out to me. Of course there would be a spending plan before any capital bill is passed.

- wordslinger - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:53 am:
Yeah, Springfield’s a pretty easy target right now.

The truth is, the pay raise itself is an unimportant issue. Take it, don’t take it — it doesn’t impact anyone’s lives in any meaningful way.

But buffoonery and corruption are sucking the oxygen out of the dome, while the real work of state government suffocates.

When do we hit bottom and how will we know?

- Cassandra - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 10:59 am:
I think it’s all up to Obama now. As the de facto head of the Dem party, and likely the next Prez, he has the ability to find a nice face-saving job for our Blago to keep him from his plan to run endlessly for guv until he dies, install Alexi as the next guv, and persuade Emil, his mentor, to retire gracefully. Only Obama can do this. Does he care enough? Who knows.

The new Blago job should involve a nice car,free access to a govt plane, a nice office with plenty of opportunities to work from home, a face-saving title, and, of course, a hefty government salary..no problem there, all govt salaries are hefty these days. No actual work required. There are lots of govt jobs like that, at the federal as well as at the state level.

It’s not Hillary Obama needs to be negotiating with. She is toast. Illinois citizens need the bailout. Soon, one hopes.

- Anonymous45 - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 11:18 am:
Cassandra, why in the name of God would Barack inject himself into this mess at this point in time? You must be having a bad day for rational thought processes.

Barack, should he win the Oval Office could appoint the two bufoons “leading” the IL Senate to some federal post, never to be heard from again to the great relief to both IL citizens and members of the GA. In fact, I think this may be the quickest remedy for the quicksand the state finds itself in with the economy tanking and the absence of purposeful leadership in the Statehouse.
Cassie, you write some goofy know it all stuff, but this is way out there…

- Cassandra - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 11:35 am:
Anon–I didn’t say he had to do it tomorrow. I just said he’s our only hope at this point. He doesn’t have to do it himself, either, he can do it through intermediaries. Other than that, we are saying the same thing. Find a graceful exit for these tortured pols. It’s the only way to move on. And it is fortuitous that an Illinois Dem is likely to be the next Prez. and can wield the necessary clout to fix it.

I don’t think the Democrats are completely oblivious to this problem.

And what, pray, is far out about this suggestion?

- VanillaMan - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 12:02 pm:
Geez!
Obama?
He hasn’t done anything as a senator, what makes you think he will do anything as a president?

- NimROD - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 12:13 pm:
“What the “report fails to recognize is that there is a huge human aspect to what government does,” Blagojevich spokeswoman Katherine Ridgway said. “We would like to hear the federation’s ideas on how the state can really help people during the national economic downturn.”

Does it strike anyone else as odd the EVERY time one of Governor Pander Bears’ press people comes out to ‘explain’ something they always use some version of the ‘what you fail to realize’ phraseology?

Has it ever occured to these people that if they EVER bothered to explain their policies and talk to the state house reporters that they might get more than zero support for some of their initiatives? It’s hard for the general public to recognize anything about what this administration does since it is nothing but a cloak of secrecy wrapped in endless press releases.

Another question - just how many spokespeople does this guy NEED? Every time I see a new press release it seems to be a different spokesman. If you’re looking to cut budget just feed the text into a speech to text computer and let it spew forth. Since no real questions are ever answered why pay a legion of spokespeople to read copy?

- NimROD - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 12:16 pm:
“I think it’s all up to Obama now. As the de facto head of the Dem party, and likely the next Prez, he has the ability to find a nice face-saving job for our Blago to keep him from his plan to run endlessly for guv until he dies”

Might I suggest worker at the prison laundry?

- Anonymous45 - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 12:23 pm:
HA! Good one Nim…

- steve schnorf - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 12:25 pm:
I think the biggest problem budgetarily right now is that neither party is willing to say and mean “you have to pay for what you spend”. Spend a little, spend a lot, but be brave enough to provide the revenue necessary to pay for it. Then let the voters judge your performance at election time.

- Bird Man - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 12:54 pm:
Ms. Ridgway (who I pray reads this blog), your administration’s days of helping people are over. From Pakistani flu shots to Team Illinois, the Blagojevich administration has done an exceedingly fabulous job of touting reform and renewal while dismantling state government whim by whim with no apparent reconstruction plan.

Want to know how the Blagojevich administration can help the people? STOP TRYING! “The people” of Illinois will be paying to fix the Blagojevich administration’s inability to govern for many years to come.

PLEASE, stop thinking and leave us be. The future’s here, we are it and thanks to you we are scared to death.

- Mad Max - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 12:56 pm:
I actually find myself respecting the guys in Springfield that vote their beliefs on the pay raise regardless of whether I feel that they deserve one or not. The state senators and representatives that I find myself having “NO” RESPECT FOR” are those politicians that instead choose to vote “Present” in order to avoid making the hard choices that we elected them to do. These useless self-perpetuating individuals seem to have been born without a backbone. Instead, their number one priority is to be re-elected to their next term in office. These guys should be voted out of office. They are butt-kissers that will will vote “a definite maybe” rather than offend anyone in their Party’s leadership and jeopardize their future political careers. We certainly don’t need more of them down in Springfield. They usually have a pattern of voting “Present” so that the folks back home will never get to know who they really are or what they truly stand for.

- Anonymous45 - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 1:13 pm:
Cass- Methinks the next Gov will be Dan Hynes-not Alexi

- Ghost - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 1:49 pm:
The next Gov will be Lisa Madigan

- Anonymous45 - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 3:56 pm:
No way Ghost-is her Dad gonna retire? Don’t think so. She has two little ones and Lisa is still young…I have a hard time beleiving her Dad would dump this disaster on her in 2010…

- Hard work or hardly working? - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 6:31 pm:
Legislators that claim they work hard for their salary have no idea what hard work is. I understand that they put a lot of time into eventing and parading – but this is hardly hard work. What ever they are doing in Springfield is a joke by any definition.

My dad was a laborer for 40 years, retired at 62 with a broken body. He never got near the wages these people earn now. I have a brother who has had a minimum wage job for 10 years. My dad gives him money from his meager retirement to help him raise his two daughters.

Do these legislators have any idea how incredibly pompous the sound? They make me sick. I wish I could vote against each parasites demanding money from taxpayers who have worked hard and miserable jobs their entire lives for the unsatisfactory outcome of providing over inflated salaries to “public servants”.

- Truthful James - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 7:04 pm:
Let’s talk seriously about Capital Plans

Capital Plans demand Capital Budgets, which requires a mix of capital and current financing. New Capital Assets (Buildings and the like, require Caoital (Bond) financing. Improvements and Extensions reuire a mix of Bond Financing and current revenues. Repairs and replacements come out of current revenues

But they can’t be formed on a one and done basis. Capital Plans usually have embedded within them a five year Capital Improvement Program which is annually updated to include an out year tacked on at the far end.

Unfortunatelky, this requires discipline on the part of the legislature. And the governor who rides sweeps like harry potter on the broom at Hogwarts.

Financing the current year portion within the budget is done with a mix of current revenues and bond issue proceeds. Bonds are sold to mimic the economic life of the Capital Assets being financed. This is done so that a replacement asset need not be funded before the bonds financing the old asset are retired.

Unfortunately, the legislature is interested more in the distribution of potk than in the proper structure of a Plan and its financing.

Municipalities regularly submit themselves to this sort of discipline to the benefit of their taxpayers.

Is there any reason why the people should get anything less than Proepr Planning and Fiscal Discipline?

- Fox Mulder - Monday, May 12, 08 @ 11:29 pm:
What Truthful said, with spell check.

Go Bearsss..said:”They didn’t oppose the lottery concession on principle. They opposed doing it before there was an agreed upon spending plan.”

Memo to GoBearsss: Another definition of “agreed on spending plan” is “budget.” If you people would for once stop the adolescent nonsense, hiding behind the skirts of the young women who do all the talking for this “administration,” and address Illinois’ fiscal woes in even a semi-reasoned manner, you might get more respect from the people who actually know what it takes to meet a payroll, pay taxes, and balance a budget-things that absolutely none of you have ever (save Filan) in your entire “careers” had to contemplate. Grow up.

- Bill - Tuesday, May 13, 08 @ 7:02 am:
Side note to the pay raises - Emergency Management Agency has a couple of student intern jobs posted for the summer - with an upper salary range of $2400 per month for a 6 month job, for a high school student/graduate, with no job experience. I’d say that’s pretty nice pay for someone’s kid (no doubt a legislative member or highly paid lackey to his highness).

With the plethora of social programs coming out of the capitol (make that Chicago) and the apparent attitude of his highness to help the citizens of the state from cradle to grave, we need to change the name of once was the “State of Illinois” to the Socialist Republic of Illinois - I’m almost certain that somewhere we will all be given our little red book to read, espousing the greatness of Rod, and what agencies and programs to turn to when any sort of need arises.

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