Illinois Taxpayers Paid Blago in 2009

by Kate Piercy The Illinois Policy Institute sent a Freedom of Information Request into the state asking for state employee salary information, and it came back with some puzzling data: Illinois taxpayers gave former governor Rod Blagojevich $28,880.07 in 2009. His “monthly salary” was $14,784.33, so it appears he received two months of pay in...

by Kate Piercy

The Illinois Policy Institute sent a Freedom of Information Request into the state asking for state employee salary information, and it came back with some puzzling data:

Illinois taxpayers gave former governor Rod Blagojevich $28,880.07 in 2009. His “monthly salary” was $14,784.33, so it appears he received two months of pay in 2009.

But, Blago was impeached at the end of January 2009, so why the two months worth of pay?

*Note: we received information that Constitutional Officers get paid once each month at the end of the month and state employees who receive pay during the last two weeks of the year (the last two weeks of December) have that income reported the following calendar year.

From our FOIA request, we received state employee pay for calendar year 2009, which apparently reflected the pay Rod Blagojevich received for December 2008 and the portion of January he was Governor.

Good to know how the state reports this!