Illinois Top Lawmakers Seek Paychecks Amid Pension Fight

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Illinois’s top two lawmakers are asking a judge to invalidate Governor Pat Quinn’s decision to veto salaries for the state’s 177 legislators over their failure to resolve a $100 billion pension funding shortfall.
The governor struck more than $13 million in lawmaker pay and expenditures from an appropriations bill in July after Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan let their chambers go out of session for the third time in 11 months without resolving the shortfall, the worst among the 50 states.
Accusing Quinn of breaching the doctrine of separation of powers, the legislative leaders sued him and state Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka on July 30. State Court Judge Neil H. Cohen in Chicago today engaged the parties’ lawyers in two hours of debate.