Why do we pay nearly $100K in salary

for each Illinois lawmaker?

By: Ted Dabrowski & John Klingner - WIREPOINTS

We didn’t opine on the nearly $5,000 raise lawmakers gave themselves at the time they passed their record-sized $55.2 billion budget, but we can’t leave it unaddressed. Democrats in both chambers voted unanimously for the budget and by extension, their own raises, while every Republican opposed both measures. 

Our politicians don’t deserve any raises at all. Certainly not after they just hiked taxes and increased costs on a slew of things at the beginning of July. Gas taxes are higher. It’s the same for gaming and tobacco products. And rideshare services. Companies, too, are seeing their taxes go up again. After they jumped $1 billion the year before. 

Our lawmakers are actually going the wrong way on competitiveness as states across the country cut their tax rates. 26 states have cut their personal income tax rates since 2021 (see Appendix).  

Yet Illinois lawmakers are now paying themselves nearly $100K for what’s considered by most to be part-time work. In total, their base pay has jumped 35% since 2022.

Add in additional stipends worth up to $30,000 for House and Senate leadership positions and a large portion of lawmakers receive far more than $100,000 annually.

Remember, these are the same lawmakers that have done nothing to provide Illinoisans with property tax relief. Property taxes have risen by several billion dollars in total over the past few years and Illinoisans continue to pay the nation’s highest property taxes. 

They’re also the same lawmakers that locked-in automatic increases to the state’s motor fuel tax, which they doubled in 2019.

The same ones that made sure public unions get the most-protected powers and benefits in the country.

The same ones that pass laws that strip voters of their rights, like the one recently used by the Effingham School District to try and bypass a taxpayer referendum.

Illinois lawmakers have destroyed affordability. And ditto for the state’s job creation and economy.

Such a terrible job performance deserves pay cuts, not raises.

A final note. Lawmakers don’t deserve all the blame. Gov. Pritzker has signed off on all of the above.

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