Illinois Senate Floor Debate — August 12, 2008

Mr. President, I move that the Journal just read by the Secretary be approved, unless some Senators has additions or corrections to offer.

Thank you, Mr. President. I would call for a Democratic Caucus in the President’s Office immediately.

Point of personal privilege, Mr. President.

Gives me great pleasure and an honor to introduce my oldest son, Nate. He’s eight years old. He came down with me to Springfield. He’s very excited to be here. His goal is to one 5  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 day be the Senate President. Please give him a -- a great Springfield welcome to my son, Nate.

Point of personal privilege, Mr. President.

I, too, have a special guest here today. You know, Senator Emil Jones served with my grandfather in the Illinois -- in the Illinois House, served with my father in the Illinois Senate and 6  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 served with me. And today he met my young son, Elliott. And the Senate President said something very wise to me. He turned to Elliott and he said, “Son, we need you down here quick ‘cause we need to replace your dad.” I’d like to introduce my son, Elliott Jacobs.

Thank you, Mr. President. Announcement. First of all, that Senator Silverstein’s in his -- asked to be excused. He’s in his district for legislative purposes. And Senator Halvorson is in Washington, D.C., with her stepson who is in the hospital, who just came back from Iraq. And I would ask that the Senate remember them in -- remember him in their prayers and for a quick recovery.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. President. House Joint Resolution 132 does the following: It’s a recommendation by the Compensation Review Board, and the Board recommends that all public officials in the executive and legislative branches under the Board’s jurisdiction be placed in the same position they would be if the COLAs payable by the law for Fiscal Year 2006 had been paid. No back pay will be issued. Number two, the Board also recommends that all public officials in the executive and legislative branches under the Board’s jurisdiction be placed in the same position they would be if the COLAs payable by law for Fiscal Year 2007 had been paid. No back pay will be issued. And the report also recommends the salaries of the judiciary, county State’s attorneys and executive branch -- by one and one-half percent as of July 1, 2008, and by one and one- half percent beginning July 1, 2009. And then, finally, the report recommends increasing the salaries of members of the legislative branch by one percent as of July 1, 2008, and by one percent beginning July 1, 2009. I’d be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. President. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate, I rise in strong support of Senator Garrett’s resolution. I would like to first compliment her on all her hard work in bringing this to the public’s attention. I’d also like to say that I think it’s very important that we pass this resolution. Got a phone call from a constituent today. His name is Ted. He’s been in business for twenty-eight years and he is in the print-screening business. And he is going to have to close his doors. A lot of people can’t afford health care, they can’t afford fuel, they can’t stay in their homes because of high property taxes. This is no time for a legislative pay increase of this magnitude. And I rise in strong support of it. And I -- again, I commend the sponsor for all her good work on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. First, I’d like to thank the members of the Rules Committee - Senator Radogno, Senator Link, 9  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 Senator Martinez and Senator Risinger - who sat in today on the Rules Committee. This came out of the Rules Committee five to nothing - a clear indication that the members of the Rules Committee are in support of this resolution of rejecting the Compensation Review Board’s recommendation. I do have to say, however, that it’s unfortunate that some people would make this a total political game. I saw the Lieutenant Governor just the other day trying to upstage the Governor at a very important function for political purposes only. But, yet, he still gets his 3.8 percent every year and I’m sure he’s glad to have it. If we were able to do a capital bill, if we were able to do funding for education and transportation, I would have been more in support of getting a raise at that time. But, clearly, we passed it over here in the Senate. We passed everything for education, for transportation, for capital. But over in the House, in the other Chamber, they let everything die. Because of that, to accept the raise right now, as Senator Radogno said, would be outrageous. I urge all Members on this side of the aisle and that side of aisle to reject the raise at this point. Now, I’ve taken a lot of criticism, a lot of heat, over this issue throughout the year. As Chairman of the Rules Committee, it was always my intention to allow the Members the right to vote. The Members have a right to vote. We know the clock was ticking. We understand timing. But I always, since I’ve been put in that position by our esteemed President - and many of you know it - have felt that bills should be able to come out of Rules and we’ve let more out of Rules than we ever have before. This is a continuation of that. And I urge everyone on both sides of the aisle, because of what Senator Radogno said -- she 10  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 made it clear: gas prices are through the roof, people are losing their homes in foreclosure, people are losing their jobs, even the City of Chicago may do some layoffs in the very near future. So I urge all of us to do the right thing and reject the raise at this time because we were not able to do the business that we needed to do for the people of this great State.

You know, the easiest thing for me to do right now is to go along with Senator Hendon’s urging and to respond to the -- the sign of the times, and the calls, and the public, and the newspaper stories that talk about how the Legislature votes itself a pay raise. But that would be a little bit irresponsible, because what it does, it tells a story as if there was some legislation proposed to increase the salary of the Legislature. And I don’t know if anybody else in this room has seen such legislation, but I have not. It’s my understanding that years ago something called the Compensation Review Board was created, and part of the rationale for creating the Compensation Review Board was to take this decision outside of the domain of the Legislature. Now, I haven’t sat and compared my salary to the salary of a legislator in the State of Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York or various other states. I haven’t tracked how cost-of-living -- adjustments have been going for people in other professions. I haven’t done these things because I don’t think that, at anytime, I should be in the position to make a determination as to what my compensation 11  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 should be. There should be a separate entity to do so. So if, in fact, as it’s being characterized in the newspapers that legislators are voting themselves a pay raise, in -- if, in fact, there were such legislation proposing that we give ourselves a pay raise, I would vote the same as I am about to vote right now, which is voting Present, because it should not be my decision as to how much I am compensated. And -- and so, therefore, I think for those who year after year after year, no matter what the economy is -- let’s be clear about this - the Compensation Review Board historically has made recommendation in good times. And guess what? There will always be a legislator to come with a resolution that says the Legislature should not vote themselves a pay raise. But that’s not what we’re doing here. We’re -- we’re making a decision as to whether or not the Compensation Review Board appropriately did its job. And if we’re going to make that decision, let’s look at their rationale, let’s examine things from that standpoint. If there are challenges with the Compensation Review Board, that’s what we should be addressing. We shouldn’t just -- we’re -- we’ve been lazy as legislators. We’ve been lazy ‘cause we’re reactionary to what is in the papers instead of doing the duty of commuting -- communicating to our constituents exactly how this goes on.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Senator Martinez in the Chair. Senator Jacobs.

Question of the sponsor.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) The sponsor indicate yield.

Could you tell me a little bit about this three-percent -- 3.8-percent increase that Pat Quinn and, I suppose -- I mean, I don’t know if other legislators took it. I don’t -- did you take it?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Senator Garrett.

13  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 Every single legislator and member of the Executive Branch has received a cost-of-living increase that went into effect in July.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Senator Jacobs.

It seems to me that this is part and parcel and typical of what we do in the Legislature. We have people in the -- in the -- in the Assembly today that need help - not -- not the one million dollars that the increase of -- of the entire legislative salary’s going to cost, but needs real serious help. We have education funding going through the roof, but what do we do? We focus on the thing that people can understand - pay raise. I work very hard. I raise a family on what I earn. I have a young son here that I have to provide for. No, I’m not saying poor, pity me, I should be in -- I should be out of public service, I should do something else. But I’ll tell you, it does frustrate me when we suggest that only the richest among us should be able to be lawmakers, that only the people who have second jobs should be lawmakers. I believe that people of lower and middle economic status should have the opportunity to serve the public. And, yes, they should give something and we do give something. I give all of myself. I give myself away to the media. I give myself away to my constituents. And -- and my colleagues can say, “Hey, I’m going to take an increase” or “I’m not going to take an increase.” But what I don’t understand, Senator, is why you feel the need to say not only do you not want an increase but no one else should have one. Shouldn’t that be something that is decided by an independent board, such 14  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 as the Compensation Review Board, rather than legislators? And if it’s not going to be that way, we ought to go back and fix the system and be more honest. Let’s just be honest for once in this building. I’m tired of it. You know, I know the taxpayers of Illinois are tired of it too. They want us to move forward. That I’ve been called back here to deal with this issue today, to spend seventy thousand dollars of taxpayer money to come back and deal with this issue, when these poor people in the audience today are losing valuable dollars for prevention of -- and -- and needed treatment - it’s a frustrating system. I encourage everyone to run for office. It’s not the greatest experience in the world, but you learn a lot about yourself. And, you know, I’m going to do the political thing. Everybody will be really happy in my district, not everybody. My newspaper friends who have been writing bad editorials will say, “Look he did the right thing.” I’m doing the wrong thing. It’s seven straight years the Legislature has been without an increase. Is that correct? Nine years. Nine years. Never are -- is there ever going to be a time when the Legislature deserves a pay raise? Never.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Senator Watson.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Thank you. Senator Raoul, for a second time.

Yeah, it’s just my name was used in debate. Couple of -- couple of points: One, if there’s a challenge with the Compensation -- with the composition of the Compensation Review Board, that’s what we should be debating here. If there’s a challenge with the procedure that the Compensation Review Board uses, that’s what we should be debating here. But that’s not what we’re debating here. And we’re either taking this out of the domain of the Legislature or we’re -- we’re just going to keep it -- keep it here. Secondly, with regards to the -- the good people from the substance abuse treatment community, we passed a budget here. We passed a budget appropriating money for the people from that community. We also passed a revenue source to pay for that. And those that have asked to override the vetoes of the Governor did not pass a revenue source to pay for those services. So -- so that should be -- made clear to all of the people from -- from -- from the substance abuse treatment community. The Senate did their job. You can’t go to a grocery store, fill up a grocery cart and not have money to pay for the groceries when you’re at the checkout counter. We - 17  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 - we -- we put money in the pocketbook. It was rejected by the House.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Senate President Emil Jones.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Senator Garrett, to close.

Thank you, Madam President. I just want to say that this has been a long and winding road. And that, as Senators, we have the responsibility and the obligation to give this an up or down vote, whether good arguments made on both sides. But, certainly, our role is to send a message to the taxpayers of Illinois to let them know where we stand and why we believe or don’t believe that we deserve a pay raise. I think all of the comments that we’ve heard about how other people in the State are hurting, people are losing jobs, we haven’t really come up with the right formula for education funding reform -- but we need to take a leadership role here and set a precedent that in times like this, we will hopefully reject a pay raise. Let me make it clear how to vote. If you want to reject the pay raise, vote Yes. If you want to accept the pay raise, vote No. I urge a Yes vote.

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Senator Garrett moves the adoption of House Joint Resolution 132. This -- this resolution requiring the Compensation Review report -- Board Review -- the Compensation Review Board report requires a record vote. Those in favor of House Joint Resolution 132 will vote Aye. Opposed, Nay. The 20  STATE OF ILLINOIS 95th GENERAL ASSEMBLY REGULAR SESSION SENATE TRANSCRIPT 168th Legislative Day 8/12/2008 voting is now open. Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Have all voted who wish? Take the record. On the question, there are 43 voting -- 47 voting Aye, 0 voting Nay, 3 voting Present. The -- the resolution is adopted. We will now proceed to the Order of Resolutions Consent Calendar. With leave of the Body, all those resolutions read in today will be added to the Consent Calendar. Madam Secretary, have there been any objections filed -- to any -- in -- resolution on the Consent Calendar?

PRESIDING OFFICER: (SENATOR MARTINEZ) Is there any discussion? If not, the question is, shall the resolutions on the Consent Calendar be adopted. All those in favor will say Aye. Opposed, Nay. The Ayes have it, the motion carries, and the resolutions are adopted. There being no further -- further business to come before the regular Session, the Senate stands adjourned until the hour of 5:02 p.m. on Wednesday, August 13, 2008. The regular Session stands adjourned. 21