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Munger deal with workers: $1,000 payment and no raise

Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger's office said Friday its 220 full-time employees will get a one-time $1,000 payment and no pay raise in the next year.

Munger and the Illinois Federation of Teachers union reached an agreement that included those terms, and spokesman Rich Carter said they'll apply to the office's whole workforce.

The agreement is separate from the bargaining impasse faced by Gov. Bruce Rauner and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, which extended talks until Sept. 30 this week.

Lawmakers and Rauner are also at budget loggerheads, preventing the state from paying many of its new bills starting July 1. Carter said the stipends will come out of money in the budget that ended June 30.

"The funds were available because the Comptroller identified efficiencies and cut costs, allowing the Office to return $500,000 to taxpayers and cut its budget by 10 percent," Carter said. "The approach allowed the Office to reward hardworking employees while avoiding increases in base pay and pension costs."

The IFT agreed with Carter's description of the union agreement. Spokeswoman Aviva Bowen tied the agreement to the standoff Rauner is facing with AFSCME.

"While the Comptroller worked with her employees toward an agreement, Governor Rauner is making extreme demands, clearly gunning for a political showdown at the expense of citizens who rely on public services," Bowen said.

Munger, of Lincolnshire, visited the Ray Graham Association in Lisle this month to say that the ongoing state budget impasse will start hitting Illinois nonprofits "very quickly."

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