By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – There’s a new comptroller and Gov. Bruce Rauner hopes she will stand strong for state employee pay as her predecessor did.
Rauner said Friday he’s worried Comptroller Susana Mendoza won’t be as steady as Comptroller Leslie Munger on state employee pay without a budget.
“When Attorney General Lisa Madigan went to court to try and stop our state employees from getting paid to create a crisis Comptroller Munger stood firm in court and helped prevent that crisis and that shut down. I hope Comptroller Mendoza will do likewise,” Rauner said.
Before being sworn in Mendoza said last week that issue is up to the Attorney General to press, but “every single option from a legal perspective is one that we have a responsibility to look at when it comes to try and deal with this fiscal crisis.”
A St. Clair County judge last year ordered state employee pay to continue, but an Illinois Supreme Court ruling earlier this year on a separate case opened the door for another possible court battle. The Attorney General’s Office has said the issue is under review.
Meanwhile, Mendoza wants lawmakers to understand she will continue to put their pay at a lower priority as the state tries to pay it’s backlog of bills.
The outgoing comptroller put lawmaker and constitutional officer pay at the back of the line behind money for social services.
Mendoza agreed with Munger’s policy and said that’s the fair thing to do if there’s no budget. “I hope my former colleagues in the legislature will understand my decision to continue to prioritize the most vulnerable people in our state over payments to legislators, unless a court instructs me to do otherwise.”
Mendoza said the roughly $10 billion of unpaid bills is more than just IOUs. “They’re not numbers on a spreadsheet. They’re stories of people’s lives and how people are hurting in this state.”
Friday several Democratic state lawmakers filed a lawsuit saying they don’t have side-incomes to make up for the delay in pay.
Lawmakers received their May paychecks in late August.
Mendoza will hold the comptroller’s office for two years after winning a special election last month.
