From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

Pay hike keeps Illinois legislators on top of heap for part-timers
By Kevin McDermott
POST-DISPATCH SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
12/03/2006

SPRINGFIELD, ILL. — In their roughly six months of legislating this year, state lawmakers couldn't come to an agreement on how to ease the impact of skyrocketing electricity rates, rein in the state's ethically challenged campaign laws, nor put the state budget on sound long-term footing.

But before adjourning for the year last week, they did manage to significantly raise their own pay, maintaining one of the highest legislative salaries in America — and the very highest among similar part-time legislatures.

Illinois legislators currently earn base salaries of $57,619, which is set to rise to $68,800 next year, in part because the Illinois Senate failed this month to stop a scheduled pay increase. The salary boost is the result of several years' worth of scheduled increases that the Legislature had earlier rejected, and is in addition to thousands of dollars more that many Illinois lawmakers get for committee chairmanships, leadership posts and a regular per diem payment for days they meet in session in Springfield.

Those session periods generally total six months or less per year, making the Illinois General Assembly — like that of most states — a part-time legislature.

But a Post-Dispatch analysis found that Illinois legislators' current base salary, before the upcoming raise, makes them the fifth highest-paid state lawmakers in the nation. The only better-paid lawmakers — those in California, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania — all meet in session for more than half the year and are considered full-time legislative bodies.

Other legislatures with schedules closer to Illinois' half-year cycle — including Missouri, where the legislative schedule is virtually identical to Illinois' — earn far less than their Illinois counterparts.

"We're the No. 1 paid part-time legislature … (but) it's sort of odd that by almost every socioeconomic indicator, we're never No. 1 at the good things,'' quipped Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association in Chicago. "I'm glad the Illinois Senate is making sure we're first at something.''

The Illinois House and Senate generally meet from January through May or June, then return to Springfield for two weeks in November to consider gubernatorial vetoes. But legislators and staff here almost universally dispute the notion that that makes them part-timers.

"Being in session is a small part of the story,'' said Cindy Davidsmeyer, spokeswoman for Senate President Emil Jones, D-Chicago. "They're working on legislation even when they're not in Springfield … taking calls (from constituents)'' and attending hearings. "It's much more than a part-time position.''

Still, the half-year legislative schedule allows lawmakers to maintain nongovernmental careers, and many do. According to official biographical data on the state's 177 legislators, fewer than 75 of them call themselves "full-time legislators'' and list no other current occupation. Among those with other careers are numerous lawyers, small-business owners, administrators, several farmers and a handful of other occupations.

The National Conference of State Legislatures categorizes the nation's various state lawmaking bodies according to whether they are considered part time or full time. The organization acknowledges on its website that "it's difficult to paint this issue in black and white'' because of the widely varied schedules and pay of lawmakers in different states.

They range from California, where state legislators were paid $110,880 in 2005 — along with a $138 per diem for each session day in the roughly eight months they meet each year — to New Hampshire, where lawmakers are in effect volunteers, getting $200 for their entire two-year terms, with no per diem.

The NCSL ranks state legislatures in five categories, from those that are completely full time to those that are considered citizen-legislatures with light schedules and little pay. Just four states are ranked as completely full time — the four that pay more than Illinois. Illinois dominates the second-busiest category, which is states in which lawmakers aren't full time but are significantly more than part time.

Missouri, with its $31,351 salary, is listed in the third category, which the NCSL identifies as legislatures in which the pay is "usually not enough to allow them to make a living without having other sources of income.''

Such state-to-state comparisons are difficult, said NCSL spokesman Brian Weberg, because the systems, schedules and methods of pay in various states are so different. But he said that, generally, Illinois is following a national trend of more "professionalization'' of legislatures, as the issues they deal with become more complicated.

Full time or not, Weberg said, the highest-paid legislatures tend to be in "big-population states, industrial states with complicated policy issues,'' which, he noted, describes Illinois.

"The job has become so complicated that you wonder sometimes why people do it,'' Weberg said. He cited more responsibility for public policy issues shifting from the federal government to the states, and "a very demanding public — a public that says, 'We want services but we don't want to pay taxes.'"‰''

Stewart, of the Better Government Association, acknowledged those issues.

"We can't expect our legislators to work for free,'' he said. But he added that the fact that so many Illinois lawmakers had time to maintain outside careers while getting paid what amounted to a full-time legislative salary might be galling to many constituents — especially when they watch that salary rise as dramatically as it will next year.

"It strikes me as indicative of their priorities,'' said Stewart. "The state budget is under severe duress. … There are a lot of other issues that are important (that haven't been addressed), but the one thing that manages to sail through … is their pay raise. Symbolically, it's horrible.''