No showdown over state salary slowdown
Illinois Comptroller Leslie Munger said Monday nobody had objected in the 24 hours since she revealed she would make state elected officials wait in line to be paid — late — like everybody else owed money by the state. I should think not. As much as state lawmakers might be exasperated with Munger’s maneuver, some of them no doubt seething privately over the projected two- month delay in their paychecks, nobody running for election in November is going to want to challenge her populist decision.
( Somebody who isn’t seeking re- election might be another matter.)
Many Illinois voters thought the best move Pat Quinn ever made as governor was to cut off the pay of state legislators for their failure to send him pension reform legislation, so voters certainly aren’t going to quarrel with Munger for stopping a step short of that.
There is a certain fairness, I must admit, to Munger’s approach of treating elected officials as poorly as other state vendors are treated, even if I regard it as a political stunt of only slightly less dubious legality than Quinn’s, which was ruled unconstitutional.
On the plus side, both Democrats and Republicans will be equally affected, including Munger. The governor, of course, only takes $ 1 in salary, but plenty of GOP legislators won’t be happy about waiting to get paid.
It’s also good symbolism, just not particularly substantive.
Don’t expect legislators to suddenly cave in on state budget negotiations because of a tardy payday, and don’t expect that $ 1.3 million they would have received this month to go very far in bailing out struggling social service programs.
Munger herself is up for election in November if you hadn’t heard, this particular maneuver being the clearest sign yet she’s making the transition to candidate mode.
Appointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner to replace the late Judy Baar Topinka as comptroller, Munger will be facing City Clerk Susana Mendoza, the Democratic nominee.
Both candidates are eager to be judged on their own merits, but there is little question the campaign will devolve into a battle over their political protectors — Rauner for Munger and Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan for Mendoza.
Munger emphasizes she’d never even met Rauner before he picked her for the comptroller job and says she’s shown her independence from him. But she’s also called herself Rauner’s “wingman” on the budget and given every indication she supports his political agenda as a prerequisite to a budget deal.
Mendoza also prides herself for her independence, having gotten her start in politics by challenging the Democratic Machine and Madigan in particular, but has long since become one of the party’s stalwarts with the speaker solidly in her corner.
In interviews Monday, both candidates dismissed the proxy war characterization.
But Mendoza seized on Munger’s connection to Rauner, while Munger critiqued Mendoza, a former state legislator, as part of the problem in state government.
“She has been in state government for a long time. And she has voted frankly for a lot of the things that added to the backlog that we have today,” Munger said, portraying herself as the newcomer to government.
Mendoza did not quarrel with Munger’s decision to delay elected officials’ pay, but demanded: “What took her so long?”
I asked Mendoza if she had been calling on Munger to take that step. She allowed that she hadn’t, but added: “I’ve been calling on her to stand up to the governor.”
Mendoza said Munger’s move highlights the power the comptroller has to prioritize who gets paid during the budget impasse — and the need to make the process more transparent to the public.
“I believe she has the wrong priorities,” Mendoza said.
Setting aside the personalities, this contest is clearly voters’ best opportunity in 2016 to make a statement about whether they prefer the Republican approach to running state government or the Democratic approach.