Chicago Sun Times Editorial re Legislature and its Failures

Raise issue helps prove lawmakers don't deserve it
5/12/2008

Editorial, Chicago Sun-Times

You have to feel sorry for Illinois state lawmakers. They live in a world where you don't have to ask for a raise, you get it automatically, unless you say no.

And you get the raise -- a good one, too, consisting of a percentage hike plus a cost-of-living increase -- whether you do a good job or not.

Which is good for state lawmakers, since they are doing a miserable job. They have yet to even resolve the state's current budget woes, yet alone grapple with the next budget.

So you can imagine the shock that shot through some lawmakers when the possibility arose they may not get their pay raises this year.

Take Senate President Emil Jones, who has been repeating himself like Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man.

"I need a pay raise," Jones says. "I need a pay raise."

Or Sen. Rickey Hendon, who was so stunned when the House voted to reject the raise, that he mistook the Senate for a TV feature.

"They want to use the Senate and pimp us, and they keep taking the money," Hendon said of the House, in an explanation perfect for MTV's Choose or Lose.

Hendon also attacked a fellow state senator, Susan Garrett, who wants to reject the raise, calling her "filthy rich."

And just in case voters wondered where the filthy rich live, Hendon informed them, after consulting his Looney Tunes map:

"Richville."

Hendon asked Garrett to sign her expense check over to him.

In all seriousness, we have no problem with the principle of giving lawmakers pay raises, even in tight economic times. With these raises, lawmakers would be making from roughly $70,000 to more than $100,000 a year.

Good salaries are a way to attract good people to these jobs, which can demand long hours and hard work when done right.

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.