Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for August 18, 2007 OVERTIME PAY?

Except that overtime is a one-time payment. These raises are annual and compounded!

Hey, CATs, it's a negotiations year and I'm always looking for ideas and rationales on what is an appropriate pay raise request. Think I'll file this one away...at the top of the list!

From the Southern Illinoisan...

Blagojevich, lawmakers set for another salary boost

By Kurt Erickson, The Southern Springfield Bureau

SPRINGFIELD - Just days after Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved 9.6 percent pay hikes for himself and Illinois lawmakers, he is poised again to sign off on yet another salary bump.

The latest one would push his salary up by $20,000 at a time when he and lawmakers have been unable to complete their business on time.

The budget sent to Blagojevich last week by the General Assembly would add another 3.5 percent to their pay checks, meaning that the governor and lawmakers would see their salaries jump a total of more than 13 percent in the course of just a few days.

The governor is reviewing the budget proposal and has threatened to veto $500 million in spending in order to free up cash for an expansion of the state's health insurance programs.

Although he has threatened to cut scores of local projects out of the budget, his comments Wednesday don't signal that he'll cut the additional pay hikes out of the spending plan.

"That seems to be among legislators the single biggest priority for them and I felt if that is so important to them then and that's what really motivates their priorities, then maybe if I respect their priority then they will respect the priority I have, which is giving health care to families," Blagojevich said.

Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch suggested Thursday that the additional pay raises would likely be treated the same way as the governor reviews the budget.

"For a lot of legislators, the pay raise issue was very important to them," Rausch said.

For Blagojevich, the newest pay raise would bump his salary to $171,000, up from its current level of $150,700.

Lawmakers, already among the highest paid in the nation, would see their salaries jump from the current base level of $57,619 to $65,353 annually. All but a handful make extra money for serving in leadership posts and as committee chairmen.

Some top state officials also would see double-digit pay hikes. Illinois Department of Corrections Director Roger Walker, for example, would see his salary rise to $144,800, up 13 percent from its current level of $128,076.

The pay hikes come as Blagojevich and lawmakers have been unable to finish their business for months. They were originally set to adjourn in May, but have been bickering over spending priorities all summer.

In addition to their base salary, lawmakers also have collected a total of about $1 million in expense checks during the record-setting overtime session.