Politics

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) ― There wasn't any progress on the state's budget crisis in Springfield Tuesday, but CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports that there was a break in the great pay raise debate as the Illinois Senate voted down pay raises for elected state officials.

Critics have called Tuesday's special legislative session in Springfield a sham and a farce as feuding lawmakers have done little to solve the state's budget crisis.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered lawmakers to hold a special session on education funding, but he offered no proposals for them to consider or even a suggestion of what he wanted to accomplish.

The House met for about 20 minutes and then adjourned. The Senate didn't take any action on education either, but did bow to growing public pressure by voting now -- instead of after the fall election -- on whether to accept a raise.

Top leaders in the Illinois Senate who had been trying to block a vote on pay raises finally allowed a vote on Tuesday and it was rejected unanimously.

The pay raise would have boosted a lawmaker's basic salary more than $7,000 a year, to nearly $73,000. The governor's pay would have jumped about $20,000, to $190,000.

Several top Democrats, including Rules Committee Chairman Ricky Hendon and Senate President Emil Jones, had been outspoken about needing a pay raise. They both said members of the General Assembly needed and deserved higher pay.

The Illinois House had already voted to reject pay raises for elected state officials and without action by the Illinois Senate, the raises would have gone into effect automatically. But when the Senate vote was forced Tuesday, the political pressure was too much and the Senate voted unanimously to reject the pay raises.

Even after the 47-0 vote against the raises, state officials still get a 3.8 percent cost-of-living increase.

Sen. James Meeks, a Chicago Democrat, compared Blagojevich's actions to his unfulfilled campaign promise to overhaul the way Illinois pays for education. Calling a session and providing no leadership sends a clear message, he said.

"He's sending the same one he sent in 2006 by making a promise and not keeping it -- That this is not his priority," said Meeks, a leading critic of the school-funding system.

The governor's aides rejected such criticism. They said the special session offered a chance for legislators to present their ideas.

"It was our hope today that lawmakers could have started a dialogue toward finding a solution for education funding," spokesman Brian Williamsen said in an e-mail. He said Meeks had requested the special session.

In 2005, Blagojevich persuaded Meeks not to run for governor by promising that he would come up with billions of dollars for education by privatizing the state lottery. After he was elected, Blagojevich proposed using the money for other purposes. To help education, he suggested a massive business tax that was overwhelmingly rejected.

Blagojevich still proposes privatizing the lottery. These days he wants to use the money to support a $25 billion statewide construction program. He has ordered legislators to meet Wednesday for another session devoted to the construction program.

There's no evidence that this stalled plan will have any new support, leading legislators to question the value of another meeting.

"It's a sham. It's a shame. It's a farce," said House Minority Leader Tom Cross, R-Oswego.

But all Democrats, not just Blagojevich, share the blame for paralysis in Springfield, he said.

"You have the House, the Senate and the (governor's) mansion, and you've accomplished absolutely nothing," Cross said. "Six years of absolute Democratic control and nothing has happened."

Earlier this year, a special panel called the Compensation Review Board recommended that state officials get small raises as well as money to make up for increases that had been blocked in past years.

Unless lawmakers specifically reject the board's recommendation, the raises take effect automatically. The House voted against them in May, but the Senate took no action, leaving the issue to be decided after the fall election.

But with Blagojevich calling lawmakers back to Springfield, the Senate faced calls to vote now on whether to take the money.

Sen. Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, argued it would be wrong to accept the raises when the state budget is running a deep deficit and constituents are struggling with higher prices.

"I think it's a shame that we have to be pushed to the brink by public pressure to do the right thing," she said.

Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago, voted "present" on the raise and called opponents "hypocrites" for objecting to the money while accepting a 3.8 percent cost-of-living increase included in this year's budget. 

Meantime, the General Assembly's failure to restore funding cuts made by the governor drew protests in Springfield.

Hundreds rallied in the rotunda to protest cuts that have closed the doors of many drug and alcohol treatment centers across Illinois.

"It is unfair that they playing with people's lives like this, this is so critical. Someone has to step in. We cannot just throw away people like that," said drug treatment worker Aesha Elamine.

As others protested in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood, at the state capitol, demonstrators took their case to the doors of the General Assembly.

"The bottom line is having to look at these mothers, the despairing wives, in the face and tell them that we can't service their loved one's. It's a horrible situation," said drug treatment counselor Matt McFarland

Behind the scenes, legislators were discussing the budget crisis, including the drug and alcohol treatment cutbacks, but all the House did publicly was convene for about 14 minutes, just long enough for one Democrat and one Republican to deliver angry speeches about the broken system in Springfield.

"It's clear that this is not a serious attempt at solving the state's problems. The governor seems to think that the General Assembly is a stage for his endless preening," said Democratic State Rep. Jack Franks.

"It is a joke, it's a sham, it's a shame, it's a farce, it is clearly designed to score points and it amplifies the infighting going on between (House Speaker Mike Madigan) and the governor in an attempt to score political points," said Republican House Leader Tom Cross.

As for the budget crisis, the General Assembly must come up with a major supplemental appropriations measure in order to keep some functions of state government going.

Amendatory vetoes by Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the failure of the General Assembly to override those vetoes have left some government functions without any funding at all.

CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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