DEMS BLOCK RECALL LEGISLATION

Well guess what? Emil Jones and Terry Link successfully blocked a bill that would have allowed Illinois voters to recall ineffective lawmakers like our esteemed governor. Do you know what they demand now from voters? A raise in their salaries! That's right, this bunch is now getting a pay raise when hardworking business owners and families are struggling to survive the economic mess created in part by these very politicians.

I have a better idea. We already have two recall provisions in Illinois. They are called the Primary Election and General Election. Every Illinois voter should be outraged at what is going on. Democrat, Republican, Green, Independent, every last one. If you are---REFUSE to vote for the people in office now. Send a message. How much worse could it get? Better yet, take a look at some of young energetic candidates running against some of these old aging "power brokers".

Candidates like Brendan Appel for State Senate against Jeff Schoenberg, an Emil Jones ally; Dan Duffy for State Senator out in the Barrington area; yours truly, Tim Stratton running against long time politican Karen May on the North Shore. Kathy Ryg, Terry Link, Mike Bond are all facing Republican opposition this fall. Given their track records why would we send them back?

Here is a great editorial I came across on the legislator pay raise scandal:

Legislators don't trust us? Feeling is mutual



BY CAROL MARIN Sun-Times Columnist
Out of the legislative madness in Springfield this week came five little words said twice for emphasis: “I need a pay raise. I need a pay raise.”

It was Senate President Emil Jones speaking


The chamber he controls in the Illinois General Assembly had just moments earlier denied voters of this state the right to decide for ourselves if we should be able to recall politicians we have elected to public office.

Whether you are a fan of the recall idea or not, you now have been summarily stripped of the opportunity to say yes or no to amending the state constitution thanks to the Senate that Jones controls and his Democratic camp followers who packed the measure with poison pills to assure it would be voted down. And who then adjourned, preventing Republicans from calling up an earlier, less onerous recall measure that might actually have passed. One that would have permitted the recall of Gov. Blagojevich or legislators themselves.

No, fellow voters, recall is a measure lawmakers think is just too dangerous to put in our hands.

Why?

If this doesn’t make you laugh until you cry, nothing will. Citizens, they warn, might seek revenge against politicians who take courageous but unpopular stands.

Courage? In Springfield? Your chances of seeing a cougar roam the Capitol are better than that.

This isn’t about courage. It’s about flacking for a governor whose future is in flames thanks to the federal pay-to-play corruption trial of fund-raising pal, Tony Rezko, in Chicago. And thanks to a gridlocked, venomous, warring Legislature where the battle lines are set in stone: Blagojevich and Jones vs. House Speaker Michael Madigan.

The whole sad, stupid, egomaniacal mess has stalemated everything from legislation on education to capital spending (roads, buses, bridges), and (shudder) ethics.

A compromise ethics bill is now close to being worked out. How great is that? Not.

While testimony in the Rezko corruption trial details outrageous, secret, multimillion-dollar “finders fees” for political power brokers who do pension business with the state and appointments to state boards and commissions that are bought and paid for by huge campaign contributions, the current ethics compromise language addresses none of that. Nor does it prohibit firms like Exelon, parent of Commonwealth Edison, from giving huge contributions to guys like Emil Jones, something that almost every other state in the union forbids.

At best, this ethics bill will narrowly address state contractors, prohibiting them from making political contributions if they do more than $50,000 worth of state business.

But hey, if the state Legislature can’t do anything else well, give credit where credit is due. They’ve sure cornered the market on figuring out how to get a pay raise without even having to vote on it.

And so today, when Illinois’ unemployment is 5.5 percent, higher than the national average; when foreclosures across the state are up 25 percent since 2006, and almost 2 million people here don’t have health insurance, Jones has the tone-deaf temerity to declare, “I need a pay raise.”

That, fellow citizens, is courage.

But don’t blame just him.

Though a handful of legislators are openly appalled by the notion of a pay raise in these hard economic times, it’s all but a done deal.

Again. A 7 percent boost this year on top of last year’s 10 percent increase. (Governor: $170,917 to $192,773; Jones and Madigan $91,824 to $102,547). The Legislature simply sits back and lets the state Compensation Review Board recommend raises that are automatically adopted unless lawmakers vote in protest.


So remember, you, dear citizen, can’t be trusted with the power of recall. But you sure can be relied upon to pony up the money to pay for state officeholders who denied you the possibility.