Right thing to do -- or is it revenge?
DOUBLE-DIPPING | Critics say gov's bid to bar some lawmakers -- all of them Dems -- from holding 2nd posts done out of 'spite'
When Michael Frerichs won election to the Illinois Senate in 2006, he could have kept his job as Champaign County's auditor.
But Frerichs quit the county post, largely because he didn't want voters in his Downstate district to perceive him as feasting at the public trough.
(Sun-Times file)
"In my part of the state, if I tried to have both jobs, I eventually would have neither job," the Democrat explained.
Not all Illinois lawmakers think like Frerichs, though. In the last decade, dozens have served in the General Assembly while also working city, county and township jobs.
Now, however, Gov. Blagojevich wants to limit so-called double dipping by legislators as part of his controversial rewrite of a state ethics bill. In a letter to the General Assembly last week, the governor wrote that "dual government employment creates the potential for a conflict of interest because a legislator's duties to his or her constituents and his or her public employer are not always consistent."
Blagojevich, however, isn't proposing an outright ban on the practice. Lawmakers who have other government jobs as elected officials, state university professors, police officers or firefighters could continue to hold those jobs.
That would mean only half of the 20 lawmakers who have two government jobs would be forced to leave one of them, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows (see graphic).
Nine of the 10 legislators who would be forced to quit a job are House Democrats -- a statistic that has prompting lawmakers in both parties to accuse the governor of using the double-dip issue to exact political revenge. House Democrats have staunchly opposed the governor's legislative priorities this year, even though they're in the same political party as Blagojevich.
"The governor had no problem with us having these jobs before this year," said Rep. Susana Mendoza (D-Chicago), an employee of Chicago's Planning Department. "It's obvious he's targeting us out of spite."
Legislators also are taking issue with Blagojevich's semantics, contending they can't technically double-dip because Illinois law prohibits them from being paid more than once by a public body during the same hour.
Illinois is among seven states to handle dual employment this way, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states' rules vary widely (see map), reflecting the trick bag lawmakers are in when it comes to balancing conflicts of interest with their rights to earn a living.
State Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) said she earned less than 10 percent of her $52,081 salary as an administrative assistant at Cook County's Provident Hospital last year because she spent so much time in Springfield. Her legislative salary is $74,027.
"I make no apologies," Flowers said. "If I have to have another job to make ends meet, so be it."
Legislators also note that the General Assembly is supposed to be a part-time post and that many members work in the private sector.
Sen. William Peterson (R-Long Grove) is among the 10 lawmakers who would be allowed to keep his second job under the governor's proposed rules. He has been the elected supervisor of Vernon Township for more than 30 years.
Peterson, however, is not seeking re-election to his $83,804 Senate seat this fall so he can focus on his $90,000-a-year township job.
The two jobs "worked well together until the last couple of years," when the spring legislative session went well beyond its traditional time limits, Peterson said.
Peterson and other lawmakers predicted the Legislature will try to block the governor's rewrite before the end of the year. If lawmakers refuse to accept Blagojevich's changes but do not vote to block them, the original ethics bill they sent him would die.
The double-dip rules mark an effort "to get back at the House Democrats," Peterson said. "Certainly it makes it even more so when he's exempting elected officials."
Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero countered that politics has nothing to do with the governor's proposed rules. He also said it's fair to allow elected officials to keep their second jobs because they serve at the will of voters, not Mayor Daley or Cook County Board President Todd Stroger. Working a city or county job could place legislators "in an awkward position" to choose between their bosses and their constituents on important issues, Guerrero said.
Contributing: Dave McKinney