Fact Checking Pritzker Statements on Legislative Pay Raises
Governor JB Pritzker in Quincy Monday. (Photo: Quincy Herald-Whig)
Governor JB Pritzker appeared to defend legislative and executive official Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) pay raises included in the state budget, though misrepresented previous changes to politician paychecks.
Speaking at John Wood Community College in Quincy Monday, Pritzker said the raises passed by the legislature in January, combined with COLA’s included in the new budget, raising lawmaker base pay to around $91,000, aren’t as dramatic as they may seem.
“You can imagine it seems like an enormous bump to have one year where you’re going up 17% as happened, I think, last year,” Pritzker said. “It was, in part, because pay had been, literally, frozen. And, that’s while we were raising the minimum wage for people in Illinois.”
Even at the $71,000 base pay legislators were at for multiple years, that equates to about $40 per hour for a full time job. Legislator jobs are not considered full time.
“For years, and particularly under my predecessor, members of the General Assembly weren’t getting paid at all,” Pritzker said. “Because no budget for a couple of years, right?”
Fact check: for the most part, lawmakers were getting paychecks. They were placed, essentially, at the “back of the line,” and had delays, but it’s not like politicians went two years without paychecks.
“Then, their pay had been frozen,” Pritzker said. “I think pay was frozen for almost ten years in Illinois for General Assembly members.”
Fact check: for years, legislators voted to suspend their cost of living increases (COLA’s), which stagnated the number. They froze their own pay. It was included in a lawsuit Democrat Comptroller Susana Mendoza fought after two former lawmakers who wanted back pay even though they voted to suspend their COLA’s.
Pritzker did not comment on claims from Republicans the pay raises were unconstitutional.
“My own view is the General Assembly has to make decisions about this themselves,” Pritzker said. “I look at the entire budget. There are things in the budget I don’t love and things in the budget I proposed and think are the right thing to do. You look at it as a totality and make a decision as Governor whether to sign it.”
Pritzker did, of course, confirm he will sign the new budget, which he said will happen “soon.”
