True to form, Illinois’ ruling class found yet another way to protect their own interests and fund their lifestyles on the backs of the hardworking people of Illinois.
The state is headed for a partial government shut down because Democrats refused to pass a balanced and constitutional budget by the June 30 deadline. As a result, state workers now face reduced pay and layoffs. Additionally, certain services will be halted. State lawmakers, however, are secure in the knowledge that their paychecks will arrive on time and uninterrupted by the government shutdown they caused.
Illinois Opportunity Project Co-Founder, Pat Hughes explains in a Chicago Tribune Guest Commentary:
“While workers face layoffs, state legislators won’t feel the pinch, thanks to a bill passed last year. It classifies legislator pay as a continuing appropriation — a budget item that state law mandates be funded even in the event of a government shutdown. The bill puts compensating part-time legislators on par with… the state’s big-ticket items such as debt and pension payments and retiree health benefits…
Illinois’ ruling class has spent decades protecting itself at the expense of a funded pension system, a respectable credit rating, and economic growth and opportunity. This vote in 2014 is perhaps the clearest and most egregious example of the motives and mindset.
Rauner wants to take power out of the hands of those who have proved — over and over again — that they cannot be trusted.
We have a choice. We can embrace his pro-growth agenda, send more principled and selfless leaders to Springfield and ultimately set Illinois on a new course. Or we can accept a political landscape where those who engineered our decline feather their beds at the expense of those of us who finance their largesse.”
