The Mike Bertelsen Project

The special session called for education funding became a special session for pay raises. The senate voted on House Joint Resolution No. 132 that would reject the Comprehensive Review Board report for legislative pay raises. The vote carried 47 to 0, with 3 present to REJECT THE RAISES. Here's a link to the vote history.

Senator Mike Jacobs had this to say before the vote: "I encourage everyone to run for public office. It's not the greatest experience in the world but you learn a lot about yourself. I'm going to do the political thing. My newspaper friends who write bad editorials will say 'look he did the right thing.' I'm doing the wrong thing."

So far the comments about this aren't all the positive. Here's the link to the Rock Island Argus/Moline Dispatch article which includes comments. Comments at this writing are not positive.

I say the "right thing" was done. Thanks to you, this issue did not go away, and a vote was taken. I would have voted to reject the raises and my stance would have been to get to the business at hand, even going back to the regular session. We have to address the $44 billion pension liability, the $185 million in Medicaid unpaid bills and a reasonable capital plan to boost infrastructure and help with job creation. The pay raise should not have been an issue.

When I decided to run for the state senate, I didn't know what the job paid. I did know it paid more than what I am making now. My reason for running is not the pay, but to serve. I want to serve you as your state senator. When I filed to get on the primary ballot, pay raises had not yet been discussed.

Have you heard that pay raises have become the focal point of this special session? Originally Governor Blagojevich called it for a capital works plan, but the shift has taken place. That's because taxpayers in Illinois are fed up. The House and Senate Republicans were opposed to the raises from the start and Lt. Governor Pat Quinn has posted a website so citizens can sign a petition and e-mail it to Governor Blagojevich and State Senate President Emil Jones. You can also just sign the petition. I signed it and e-mailed it.

I heard this morning from a news item on the Illinois Radio Network that the governor is now opposed to the raises. He didn't say a word about them during the last special session. Emil Jones remains adamant on the issue, and sounded like he won't budge. Will Senate Democrats try to persuade their leader to bring up a rejection vote? This might be a mute point because State Comptroller Dan Hynes says the raises won't be paid because the money wasn't appropriated.

Do you notice that the legislative business at hand gets put on the back burner with the Democrats? Will one wonder why the special session was called in the first place?

Governor Rod Blagojevich has called a special session of the legislature next week. One thing I thought of is the state legislature may find enough time to enjoy the Illinois State Fair and thus help sagging attendance. But back to business. They will go at the bequest of the governor to look at the scaled-down version (from 34 to 25 billion dollars) of the capital plan and public school funding.

First the public school funding issue was brought up by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, who demanded a special session. The ILBC wants to put school funding to the forefront because of the disparity of school district funding based on property taxes versus a tax dollar boost from income taxes. Recently Senator James Meeks (D-Chicago) called for parents to register their children for the upcoming school year at the New Trier Township school district, a wealthy suburban district. This is to be done to protest the funding disparities between intercity and suburban school districts.

Meeks and other African-American legislators have called for a property tax/income tax swap to equalize funding among school districts. Several have said that this plan would raise income taxes. This notion is nothing new. I can remember when Jim Edgar was in office as governor, he tried twice for at least some sort of reduction of the property tax for schools, but he could get no real, serious support and the initiatives failed. Once the plan was dead before any real talk on the issue could get going. Remember Edgar left office in January 1999. That's how long this has been. In Chicago, Meeks said he hoped to see a vote next week on a bill to allow students to go to whatever school district they wished. He also called for a vote on legislation to dismantle the state’s school funding system in 2010, forcing a rewrite of the funding system during the next gubernatorial election year.

I personally don't criticize the idea of this (I've shot the idea out in plenty of tax discussions for the last 12 years), but I have a difficulty accepting that this should be attempted in a special session without so much as a hearing on the issue. What do school administrators have to say? Or even county treasurers (of which I am one)? Since we collect and distribute school district property tax monies, I am a bit curious how an income tax system would operate. Plus how would this effect the property tax levy process? Would income taxes have to be increased? Get my concern? Logistics are a bit involved here!

Well if that's not enough, the capital plan revenue is still up in the air, since the major portion of the revenue is the sale or lease of the lottery. Meeks wanted the sale or lease of the lottery to go to education, but that plan failed. Meeks said he would not vote for the lottery sale or lease to fund construction. Will Senator Meeks appeal for a sale or lease of the lottery for his school tax swap plan? Tune in to find out. Will there be the votes in the House to use the lottery to fund the capital plan. A "test run" in the last special session said no (the vote was for the expansion of gambling licenses), but more House Republicans than who'd thought, voted for the expansion of gambling licenses as a source of revenue. Were they just practicing for what was yet to come? By the way, that initiative failed mainly due to a three-fifths vote needed.

If that's not enough, bring State Senate President Emil Jones into the mix. Jones faces the prospect of the legislative pay raises taking effect while the Senate is in session, opening him and other Democrats to criticism, or should I say more criticism? Jones & Co. have an "out" and that is to reject the raises in this special session. How bad does Mr. Jones and the Senate Democrats want that raise? We'll soon see.

Chicago Tribune Clout Street was a source article for this entry

A message came from State Senate Republican Leader Frank Watson and he had this to tell. The pay raise issue didn't come up in the special session. The State Senate would have had to reject the pay raises to keep them from kicking in automatically. No such luck since the Senate Democrats were adamant on not rejecting them a few weeks back. Governor Blagojevich was not vocal on the issue at all during this last special session.

Governor Blagojevich cut the budget to balance it, but kept the pay raises intact. With those increases, his salary goes from $170,917 to $184,035. A spokesman for the Governor referenced state statute for his decision. In 2003 Governor Blagojevich vetoed raises.

Tom Cross, House Republican leader mentioned that the idea of a pay raise is "mind-boggling" in this economic climate.