40,000 Illinois State Workers To Get 14% Payraises

Springfield, Ill. - More than 40,000 unionized state workers got a pay raise last Thursday, bringing to 7 percent the amount they're gotten since last year. These same state employees are in line for another 7 percent by next July 1, all at a cost of a half-billion tax dollars a year.

It's more than the virtually bankrupt state can afford, and some Republican lawmakers say the raises need to be rolled back.

"I'm outraged," said State Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno. "It's very difficult to buy this rhetoric that, 'We need to borrow, we need increased revenue,' when these kind of poor management decisions are going on."

For his part, Governor Quinn said the 14 percent pay raise deal was cut by then-Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2008. Quinn did persuade the AFSCME union last year to postpone 2 percent of the pay raise until 2011, the first time AFSCME had ever consented to even a temporary deferment of a pay raise. Quinn and the union also agreed to find $70 million in savings in health care costs. Employees agreed to pay higher health insurance premiums and higher co-pays for health care.

"For two years that I've been governor, preparing a budget, the General Assembly doesn't want to do anything very challenging on this area," said Quinn. "They defer everything to the governor. My job is to get the job done for the public. I think we've done that, in as positive a way as possible, under the circumstance."

AFSCME said it's outrageous that Republicans like Radogno have "done nothing to help solve the state's financial problems." The union argues that the state needs to raise taxes. AFSCME's chief negotiator in Illinois, Union International Vice President Henry L. Bayer, responded to Radogno.

"I'm outraged Sen. Radogno and her fellow Republicans have done nothing to help solve the state's financial problem,” Bayer said. " Where would she cut $9 billion? It can't be done with just cuts. We need more revenue." Bayer and other union leaders strongly support tax increases.

A spokesman for AFSCME said Fox Chicago News and critics of the wage increases had taken them out of context. He noted that the wage increases, which because of compounding are actually larger than 14 percent, come over the life of a four-year union contract.

"Fox neglected to mention that Illinois has the nation's fewest state employees per capita. Manufactured controversies like this misinform the public and insult the men and women of state government who care for the disabled, aid the unemployed, prevent child abuse, analyze crime-scene evidence, keep our prisons safe, and perform all the other essential services Illinois residents rely on every day," the AFSCME spokesman said.

The contractual raises are now legally locked in. Any roll back could come only with the union's agreement. Bayer has said that would require a vote of the rank and file state workers AFSCME represents. A threat of massive layoffs would be the most likely source of leverage for any future state official wanting to re-open the union contract.