Mayor’s Row………..

                Much talk is being bantered about from Springfield as the legislature is in session and now has two weeks to get a lot of work done.  Of course the budget issue and the lack of money is looming as is the capital bill.  One thing that does not seem to have any difficulty getting done though is another huge pay raise for those hard working legislators.

                Legislators are the only people I know of that can get a pay raise without voting for it.  Several years ago they created a pay raise commission that would handle that difficult task for them.  Actually they created the commission to shield themselves from the rest of us.  How this works is the commission every year makes recommendations as to how much legislators and judges should be paid.  They make their report to the legislative leaders who then try to figure out how they can get a pay raise and at the same time keep the voters somewhat satisfied.  One legislator recently said he was having trouble getting by on $85,000 per year.  I would say to him, try getting by on a lot less and if you don’t think you are getting paid enough, go somewhere else and work.

                Once the commission report is studied legislators can sit back and do nothing and the raises are granted.  If they don’t want the pay raise both the House and Senate have to pass identical bills refusing the pay raise.  It is a complicated mess, one that should be straightened out by the legislators themselves but they seem to have trouble finding the time to actually do something that would create the impression that they are the hard working public servants they claim to be.  The House has passed a bill that would not accept the pay raises.  Now the Senate under the leadership of Emil “I want a pay raise” Jones who has publicly said that he may have to go on food stamps.  I can assure you that unless Jones does an about face the bill will not even be voted on in the Senate and the raises will take place.

                To see how things work in the real world though lets’ look at local government; Sesser for instance.  In local government if any raises are to be handed out they must be voted on by the board just prior to when those same people have to run for election.  That way local voters can decide if the Mayor, Treasurer, Clerk and Aldermen are earning their salary.  Of course our jobs are part time.  But hey, wait a minute; legislators are part time employees too with the exception of those in Southern Illinois.  A huge percentage of the legislators are full time employees elsewhere in the work force.

                It looks to me like even though legislators got a ten percent pay raise last year by this behind the scenes maneuvering they are back at the public trough about to get an eleven per cent raise this year.  Will they be back next year wanting a twelve per cent pay raise?   Once again, if you are not outraged by now, you simply are not paying attention!

                Will IDOT move 150 employees to Benton?  My first reaction to that is when pigs can fly that will happen, but with the reformer/unreformer at the helm of this sinking, or is it stinking ship, one never knows.  This is the same guy who won’t move his family to Springfield because it would be disruptive to them.  So now he comes along and says we are moving 150 families from Springfield to Benton.  I wonder if he considers that disruptive for them.

                There are several flaws to this move.  Sure, we could use the jobs down here although I am not sure you can call this economic development when you move jobs out of one place and put them in another.  I also am not buying this as being a move to save money.  The Illinois Auditor General just last week blew huge holes in the IDOT agency for huge amounts of waste in such things as paying invoices twice and not being able to have a paper trail to follow throughout the agency so I don’t buy the save money theory.  Is it a payback for legislators not allowing a recall amendment to the constitution or is it political reward time?  I don’t know and really don’t care what the motivations are, we just need to be told the truth about the whole matter and saying it is being done to save money will not do it for me.

                Of course this governor hides from the media so questions cannot be answered.  We have to rely on people in the governor’s spin office for information.  Just last week the governor was in the area to announce the naming of a stretch of Interstate 57 in honor of former Congressman Ken Gray.  Of course we all love Ken Gray and every day we take advantage of projects he has brought to us in his decades of service.  He was a true public servant and still is a very popular guy.

                I declined an invitation to attend mainly because I was working elsewhere that day.  In hindsight I am glad that I did not go.   What started out as a tribute to Ken Gray quickly turned into a cheerleading session of good ol’ boys patting each other and the governor on the back for his accomplishments.  Labor guru Eddie Smith was there heaping praise on the governor, SIU President Glenn Poshard is now President of the governor’s fan club and he fawned all over the place about the reformer/unreformer.  IDOT Secretary and overall puppet Milt Sees and Deputy Secretary David Phelps, the pension builder himself, just frothed at the mouth about how fortunate we are to have this guy in the governor’s chair.  Our State Senator Gary Forby was there, all smiles in a picture on the front page of local papers.  I will have to say this for Forby; he is probably the only legislator facing reelection that has taken a picture with the governor so his loyalty is unquestioned.  That may come back to haunt him but Forby is a man of his word and stands by his convictions so that is a good thing.  There are not many loyal people anymore.

                In talking to folks who were at the event and reading news coverage one question came to my mind and that is if the U S Attorney ever gets around to indicting this clown we call governor, will these same people be called as character witnesses?  One thing they can all testify to is that he really is a character!

                The season finale for the Opera House Stage Company came to an end last week with the production “Ruddygore” that thrilled nearly 500 people from all over Southern Illinois and two from South Carolina who were traveling through.  This performance was an outstanding display of local talent including a doctor, an attorney, a housewife, college professor, high school students, college students, a retired teacher, an electrician, and a whole mix of working, semi-working, retirees, an 11 year old and just a great group of people.   The work was hard and the hours long but we look forward to the next season which starts this fall!