Quinn’s stunt still a good one
September 26, 2013 5:24PM
Updated: September 26, 2013 5:59PM
Well, heck, we said all along it was a stunt — and probably not a legal one.
We just didn’t care.
If Gov. Pat Quinn’s dramatic decision back in July to withhold all legislators’ salaries until they solved the state’s unfunded pension crisis put pressure on them to finally get it done, then we thought it was a stunt worth pulling.
And though Cook County Judge Neil H. Cohen ruled Thursday that what Quinn did is flat-out illegal — governors can’t mess with the paychecks of legislators — we have no regrets. Judge Cohen’s ruling just gives us yet another opportunity to pump up public outrage against our self-serving and spineless state Legislature.
Senate President John Cullerton praised Cohen’s decision, saying that the Legislature can now “put aside all distractions and focus on the goal of pension reforms.”
Which would be a first.
Far too many legislators for the last couple of years, best we can see, have done their darnedest to duck the painful business of true pension reform, more worried about losing a single dollar in campaign contributions, a single vote in the next election or the support of union pals.
Though the Legislature’s fall veto session fast approaches, we honestly have little faith they will do the job.
But they will get paid.
