Angry over Mayor Richard Daley’s pre-emptive move to protect O’Hare International Airport from the Republican-run legislature, GOP lawmakers Tuesday prepared to unveil their first major retaliatory response.
Their target? The wallets of the mayor and city aldermen.
Under a bill that House Speaker Lee Daniels was preparing for a vote by his GOP majority Wednesday, the 36 percent pay hikes that aldermen approved for themselves and a 48 percent increase granted to Daley on Saturday would be taken away before they started.
The increases, set to take effect May 1, would boost aldermanic pay to $75,000 a year from $55,000, while Daley’s annual salary would rise to $170,000 from $115,000. Also affected by the House bill would be 24 percent raises that aldermen gave city Treasurer Miriam Santos and Clerk-elect James Laski, boosting their pay to $105,000 from $85,000.
The pay increases were approved at the same City Council meeting in which aldermen endorsed Daley’s regional airport alliance with Gary. That move was prompted by fears of a Republican legislative takeover of O’Hare and the siphoning of city airport funds to build a third regional airport, near Peotone.
Republicans have denied that their plan for a regional airport authority was a power or money grab. Instead, they said they were negotiating with the city to give the suburbs a voice on O’Hare noise and runway-expansion issues.
But the new GOP-run legislature was stung by Daley’s end run. Now, Republicans are warning of retribution involving a host of city-related issues. In addition, they contend that the General Assembly still can form its own regional airport authority.
Though there was little doubt that the move to strip Daley and aldermen of their pay raises was motivated by the airport, Republicans were trying to downplay any connection.
“We’re doing what the taxpayers want us to do. When an entity of government overindulges to the extent they did, taxpayers expect the state legislature to do something about it,” said one Republican.
And though the move might be on shaky legal ground, Republicans relished the thought of Daley and aldermen spending taxpayer money going to court in an effort to win back the pay increases.
The House measure apparently would supersede Chicago’s special home-rule powers, thereby requiring a three-fifths vote of lawmakers. But Daniels, of Elmhurst, is prepared to rule that only a simple majority of the House is needed.
That means only the votes of Daniels’ 64-54 GOP majority are required for approval. If a supermajority of 71 votes was needed, Daniels would have to have helping Democratic votes, and that would be highly unlikely.
On Tuesday, House Republicans gave Daley a sample of their resentment over the Chicago-Gary airport alliance, sending to the Senate an ethics measure requiring all city airport contracts over $10,000 to be competitively bid. The bidding firms also would have to disclose their officers and large shareholders.
Republican staff members had been working on the ethics package for two weeks, but they tacked on the O’Hare bidding rule after Daley announced his compact.
“You have to ask, `What is the mayor trying to protect?’ ” said sponsoring Rep. Robert Churchill (R-Lake Villa). “We just felt we should know who had those contracts.”
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Churchill said his staff searched in vain for copies of contracts for services at O’Hare.
“It may just be that we haven’t snooped down the right hallways or looked in the right desk drawers,” he said.
But city officials said all such contracts are currently put to bid and are a matter of public record.
“All of Chicago’s contracts comply with our detailed ethics ordinance and are publicly available documents,” said Duncan Harris, first assistant corporation counsel for the city.
The House GOP ethics package also would eliminate virtually unfettered tuition waivers to public colleges and universities awarded by legislators and forbid lawmakers from holding Springfield fundraisers on days when the General Assembly is in session and on any day during the last two months of the spring session.
It also would eliminate legislators’ $81 daily stipend for each day that the spring session goes past May 31 and would require Chicago ward and Cook County township party committeemen to disclose their use of campaign funds.
Democrats balked at some parts of the package, but were hard-pressed to make much noise about a strong ethics bill with good chances of passing.
Rep. Constance Howard (D-Chicago) said she would hate to see the tuition waiver program eliminated because it guarantees that students from all over Illinois get a shot at scholarship money.
But the scholarships have come under fire with a federal investigation into whether five present and former legislators used them to reward friends.
But the battle between Daley and Republicans was the talk of the day as lawmakers returned to Springfield for what is scheduled to be the final six weeks of the spring session.
And Bensenville Village President John Geils, chairman of the Suburban O’Hare Commission, said his group won’t meet with Chicago officials over the city’s offer of anti-noise funds and late-night curfews.
“We will not sell out the region for 11th-hour tokenism by Chicago,” Geils said. “We will not be bought off.”
The warring also prompted Cook County Board President John Stroger, a close Daley ally, to try to keep from getting dragged into the crossfire.
“I have talked with the leaders at the state level, and I have not been threatened,” Stroger said as he prepared to come to Springfield to meet with the governor and legislative leaders.
Stroger is trying to forestall a bill in the GOP-dominated House that would require voter approval before bonds could be sold for a new $640 million Cook County Hospital. Chances for the bill’s passage had been slim until Daley pulled his airport maneuver.
Stroger also is trying to push legislative approval of a long-stalled measure that would require the state to collect the county’s .75 percent sales tax on big-ticket items, such as automobiles.
In other legislative action:
Concealed firearms: Senators approved legislation that would let retired police officers carry concealed weapons if they take a training course. The House has defeated a similar measure.