Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday vowed to veto a 2.8 percent cost-of-living increases for legislators, judges and statewide officials like himself as he also pledged to eliminate the jobs of more than 200 prison captains he says are unnecessary.
Blagojevich said the cuts will save the state $22 million and be followed by more trims he plans to make in the $52 billion budget lawmakers sent him last weekend for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
While bargaining with legislators over the shape of his budget in recent weeks, Blagojevich repeatedly refused to take a public stand on whether he would approve legislation to authorize their pay hikes.
His quick action following the legislative vote to endorse his budget was similar to the way he dealt recently with controversial legislation giving a competitive edge in the local phone market to SBC Communications Inc. Blagojevich declined to state a position on the bill before its passage by the General Assembly last month, then signed it into law four hours later.
State law provides for annual cost-of-living adjustments based on the rate of inflation for elected officials. Last year as the state’s fiscal crisis was growing, lawmakers voted against taking the pay boost. This year, despite an even deeper crisis, they did not waive the increase and included the extra money to fund it in the budget package.
In retrospect, some lawmakers said the governor’s quick assault on the raise led them to question his sincerity while seeking their help on budget matters.
Sen. Donne Trotter (D-Chicago), the Democrats’ point man in the Senate on budget matters, said Blagojevich knew about the pay hike proposal while the budget negotiations were ongoing and could have stated his opposition at that time.
“It does seem as if, `OK, go ahead and do it, I need your vote,’ and then he cuts it out only two days after we leave Springfield,” Trotter said. “A 2.8 percent [cost-of-living adjustment] isn’t big enough to say, `Damn, we should not have voted for the budget.’ It wasn’t about that. But we could have had a more candid conversation about it, if he had a problem about it, before we left.”
Nevertheless, Trotter said the cost-of-living increase could be viewed as “pretty excessive” when compared to the outright loss of jobs for the captains in the Department of Corrections.
Trotter and Rep. Gary Hannig (D-Litchfield), the leading budget expert in the House, also questioned the governor’s decision to cut money for captains.
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“They do play a role in the prison system,” Hannig said. “Most legislators felt it was appropriate and necessary to have someone from management there to make sure the second and third [prison] shifts are overseen.”
Still, said Hannig, the decision is Blagojevich’s to make, and that, if he’s confident he can run the prisons without the captains, the legislature probably won’t object.
Cutting the cost-of-living adjustments for state officers, legislators, judges, dozens of agency heads, and members of several boards and commissions would save about $4.5 million. Another $17.3 million would be saved from eliminating the 219 jobs of prison captains.
But others think doing away with the cost-of-living adjustments for judges is a mistake.
Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago) pointed to a provision in the state constitution that says a judge’s salary cannot be diminished during his term.
“You can see where you don’t want to have legislators with the ability to retaliate against the judiciary if they didn’t like an opinion,” Cullerton said. “To avoid that, the constitution says you can’t diminish their salary in the middle of their term.”