Lawmakers in line for another pay raise

SPRINGFIELD -- Fresh off a hefty pay increase last year, state legislators are in line for another raise -- and they will have the final say on whether they and other top officials get the extra cash.

Under a recommendation from the state's Compensation Review Board, lawmakers would see their base salary jump by more than $7,000 to nearly $73,000 a year by next summer. Pay for legislative leaders would top more than $100,000.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich could get a pay raise of more than $20,000 -- bringing his salary to more than $190,000 a year.

The recommendation comes after legislators' pay increased by nearly 10 percent last year.

Some lawmakers are already promising to block the raises, citing a poor economy and the recent salary bump.

"How can we justify giving ourselves any kind of a raise? It sends the wrong message, the complete wrong message," Sen. Susan Garrett, D-Lake Forest, said Wednesday.

But blocking the increases could be tricky, even if lawmakers agree they're unnecessary.

Rather than require legislators to vote for any pay increases, state law sets up a system where Compensation Review Board recommendations are automatically adopted unless legislators vote to block them.

Republicans in both chambers have filed resolutions to reject the increases the board recommended on March 31, and Garrett promises to do the same in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

A spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan said he has not heard much discussion of the pay raises but noted the House traditionally has voted to block them.

The board issues recommendations in even-numbered years, which are also election years. Legislators have rejected them six times, including from 2000 through 2004.

The latest recommendation calls for constitutional officers, top executive branch officials and lawmakers to get cost-of-living increases for 2006, 2007 and 2009, along with small salary increases over the next two years: 1.5 percent a year for judges, state's attorneys and executive branch officials and 1 percent a year for legislators.

The board said the cost-of-living increases were especially needed because every year they are skipped amounts to a pay cut for officials, resulting in a "significant drop in earning power."

"The present state of affairs is unacceptable," chairman Kevin Forde wrote in the board's report.

The board noted judges and state's attorneys asked for their increases, while the governor's office made no recommendations for executive branch pay raises.

The House and Senate didn't agree to block the raises in 2006. But officials didn't actually receive the extra money until last summer, when a measure was approved by the governor that included cash to cover the raises. Lawmakers could bypass the increases by simply not putting money in the next budget for them, although the board urged them to reduce the recommended amounts rather than reject them entirely.

Legislators critical of the new increases say the sad shape of the state budget should prompt lawmakers to reject more money.

"We're not paying our bills, we're not paying things that were budgeted in the last budget," said Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield. "There has to be an attempt to reject this."