Quinn Suspends Lawmakers’ Pay — Wins Political Points, Risks Court Fight
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Gov. Pat Quinn tried to bounce back off the ropes Wednesday, boldly denying state lawmakers their paychecks because of their failure on pension reform — a move that puts a chief adversary of the governor in a political trick bag but could also force a constitutional battle.
The perhaps unprecedented maneuver came one day after the Democratic governor took a beating from a Legislature that refused to do his bidding on pensions or concealed-carry legislation.
“This is an emergency,” Quinn said at a news conference called the morning after lawmakers blew another deadline to come up with a pension overhaul. “This is a crisis.”
Quinn repeatedly stated that he couldn’t in good conscience allow legislators to get paid when they hadn’t done the job.
“We want to have an alarm bell for our legislators so they understand this is an emergency that deserves their undivided attention,” said Quinn. “They need to have the alarm bells ringing in their ears. The best way to do that is to hit them in the wallet.”
Quinn said he’s authorized the state comptroller to withhold his salary as well, though Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka later questioned if that is constitutionally allowable and asked for a legal review.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From the Chicago Sun-Times
Gov. Pat Quinn tried to bounce back off the ropes Wednesday, boldly denying state lawmakers their paychecks because of their failure on pension reform — a move that puts a chief adversary of the governor in a political trick bag but could also force a constitutional battle.
The perhaps unprecedented maneuver came one day after the Democratic governor took a beating from a Legislature that refused to do his bidding on pensions or concealed-carry legislation.
“This is an emergency,” Quinn said at a news conference called the morning after lawmakers blew another deadline to come up with a pension overhaul. “This is a crisis.”
Quinn repeatedly stated that he couldn’t in good conscience allow legislators to get paid when they hadn’t done the job.
“We want to have an alarm bell for our legislators so they understand this is an emergency that deserves their undivided attention,” said Quinn. “They need to have the alarm bells ringing in their ears. The best way to do that is to hit them in the wallet.”
Quinn said he’s authorized the state comptroller to withhold his salary as well, though Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka later questioned if that is constitutionally allowable and asked for a legal review.
Read more in our daily News Update...