Institute in Rockford Register Star:Clueless in Springfield, Lawmakers Hand Out Raises
Institute featured in a story on the state's debt, tax hike, and raises in Springfield.
If you’ve looked at your paycheck recently, you’ve noticed it’s not as much money as it used to be.
That’s mainly because of the increase in Illinois’ income tax rate from 3 percent to 5 percent.
Although your paycheck is smaller, aides and staffers of Illinois senators got a nice bump.
Those staffers got a raise, even though the state is at least $13 billion in debt and has yet to figure out how to pay its bills.
Gov. Pat Quinn is supposed to tell us this week how the tax increase money will be spent, but meanwhile lawmakers took care of their own — with your money.
On the Republican side, the average increase was 4.9 percent, while the Democrats handed out raises averaging 4.5 percent.
It’s not a lot of people — 62 on the Republican side and 86 on the Democratic side — and it’s not a lot of money — a little more than $282,000.
However, if there were a choice between paying bureaucrats $282,000 or sending that money to a school district or a human service agency it was owed to, we know where we’d like the money to go.
That much money may be insignificant in the Illinois budget, but it could be significant for a small school district or just about any agency that serves people who need help.
Instead, the deadbeat state is looking to borrow $8.75 billion to pay its bills.
Politically, it may not happen because the plan needs Republican votes, votes that don’t appear to be coming. Financially, borrowing has not helped Illinois solve its problems.
The Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, says Illinois would have had an extra $1.6 billion if it didn’t have to pay the debt service costs of previous borrowing.
Senate leaders defended the increases by saying staffers hadn’t had a raise in three years and deserved it.
Don’t we all.
Things have been getting slightly better in the Rock River Valley where unemployment has fallen to 13 percent, but that’s not a percentage to celebrate.
People who are working are working harder or longer for the same pay, if not less. It’s not uncommon for local workers to have seen a decline in wages, furlough days, lost vacations, the end of 401(k) matches and increased health care costs.
Add a 67 percent tax increase the way the state did and you’ll see more families struggling to make ends meet. Even if a family is doing OK, people are more than likely to delay major purchases until the bank account is a bit more solid.
The only consolation for Illinoisans is that the House of Representatives hasn’t followed the senators’ bad example.
Good. The state has no money.