CapitolFax.com - Latest Comments in Question of the day

Re: Question of the day

Peppermint Patty — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 17:15:27 -0000

The so called 4% raise amounts to very little after taxes, etc. Yeh, I've heard plenty of jokes about state workers not doing anything but those of us who are working doing the work of what used to be 3+ employees consider this to be just what it was...a political ploy to get some votes. As a state employee of 15 years, it would have meant more if it would have been put back where it was taken from in the first place. Our retirements!
I've seen what a real governor can do and now is the time to get rid of smilin' Rod.

Re: Question of the day

Ex-State Employee — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 13:27:30 -0000

Now that Rich Miller has politely informed us of the true identity of "Right of Right", I hope that NO ONE believes any load of BS that this administration has to say about caring for the people who keep this state running (the average state worker). Mr. Right of Right has voiced this administration's true opinion of it's state employees right from the ole Guv's campaign headquarters!

As for you, Mr. Yellow Dog Democrat, what the heck do you mean state workers don't have to worry about losing their jobs or their families health care??? My husband is still a state worker and I am now a stay at home mom of two young boys. There hasn't been a day go by in the past three years that we haven't feared the loss of his job (and our benefits) to this administration. They are cold-hearted, ruthless and uncaring. Thank God we do still have an income to be thankful for this year and I also thank God that we are blessed with a better sence of caring than those now running our state government.

Re: Question of the day

MC Gamer — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 11:17:15 -0000

TO: - stephen - Friday, Dec 9, 05 @ 9:12 am:

I *think* the Dec. 2 date is because the Pay Plan amendments making the 4% happen would only become effective upon public notice. The public notice here is publication in the Illinois Register, which is published on Fridays. The better way of doing it would have been to publish the Pay Plan amendments on a prior Friday (e.g., sometime in November), with an effectiveness date for the amendments of Dec. 1.

Re: Question of the day

stephen — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 10:12:53 -0000

Somebody has got to tell me , why did increase come on Dec 2 and not Dec 1 which is start of a pay period , do you know how much time payroll has to spend to figure out 1 less day at lower rate, there must be some stupid reason why?

Re: Question of the day

Yellow Puppy Democrat — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 23:08:39 -0000

IDOT Watchdog, save your propaganda for someone who care.

Re: Question of the day

6 Degrees of Separation — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 22:12:46 -0000

"The IDOT engineer from Carbondale...is not paid to make administrative or policy making decisions, and is not qualified to distribute press releases or to contact local legislators."

How true! "Ordinary" citizens should never be able to approach our royalty. They should know their place in society and get to the back of the bus, and never speak unless spoken to.

"He certainly needs to be disciplined, and his supervisors also need to consider transfering him to a less stressful position since he appears to be a little off balance. Someone needs to take his kool-aid away."

This does not go far enough. He clearly needs to be sent to the Gulag Archipelago to be "re-educated". Once he realizes the error of his ways and apologizes to the "Worker's Paradise", he may be allowed to return to earn a few rubles here and there.

Re: Question of the day

Anon — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 19:31:38 -0000

cassandra you said

One advantage to unionizing routine MC positions
is that those positions become less susceptible to political influence, since, assuming the MC contract follows the current state labor contracts, employees bid on vacant positions based on seniority and job classification and the union would no doubt resist political appointments to these jobs.

I am sorry to say that your assumption is false. Union positions are indeed filled as the result of politcal pressure.

Think about it.... if you really want to reward a poltical hack put them into a union postion. They are then protected no matter what administration is in office.

Re: Question of the day

voter bob — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 17:22:44 -0000

You Rs can bithc about IDOT-ISBE-GOV office and Ts all you want but the truth is most of these folks are still making thousands less than those who had the same position under the Ryan and Edgar administration. No you cant use the experience excuse because most of these guys slid into the jobs a couple of months before the admin changed and were in there last(final) positions a short time before let go. You lost get over it and get on, you're killing yourself. The medicine you made doesnt taste good does it.

Re: Question of the day

Cassandra — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 10:29:48 -0000

The problem I see with unionizing a substantial number of MC positions is that it is even harder to get rid of nonperforming union employees than it is to get rid of (now) MC employees. Since there are way too many MC employees now, moving them into a unionized bargaining unit would virtually lock in the overage...which taxpayers have to pay for...and now forever. These folks aren't going to leave...they don't have the skills to get a non-government job. They are lifers.

One hopes that if unionizing MC employees becomes a reality, the remaining management positions will change to at will. Currently, especially at overstaffed agencies like DHS and DCFS, there are far too many upper level administrators who are on four year term who are doing little or no work and sitting out their terms. These folks need a taste of the pressures of the real working world in exchange for their $80,000 and up salaries. Right now, they are protected for their four years even if they do absolutely nothing (and doing nothing is not uncommon).

Re: Question of the day

IDOT Watchdog — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 06:53:03 -0000

The IDOT engineer from Carbondale that squealed like a little girly-man is paid to supervise the preparation of plans and specifications. He is not paid to make administrative or policy making decisions, and is not qualified to distribute press releases or to contact local legislators. He certainly needs to be disciplined, and his supervisors also need to consider transfering him to a less stressful position since he appears to be a little off balance. Someone needs to take his kool-aid away.

Re: Question of the day

6 Degrees of Separation — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 02:24:24 -0000

Jeff Gerth:

You are correct the advent of the "Technical Manager" positions was with the JRT administration. It also didn't hurt the agencies as much when staffing was much greater than it is now and the worker bees could cover up the lack of productivity of the TM's much more easily. Nevertheless, a trend that many old-timers did not agree with when it started. And some of them actually worked out well; I guess if you throw enough stuff at the wall, a little of it will stick. Then as it is now.

The lump sum payment in lieu of a raise (which I think was actually something like $545 or $565) was accompanied by the state's pickup of 4% of the pension, and was negotiated by the unions. It wasn't such a bad deal as the take home pay on the paychecks actually went *up* as a result. Many of those union members who sacrificed their raises got promoted to supervisory positions, only to have that 4% pension payment deducted several years later during this admin, with no raise...and the take home pay went *down*, and stayed *down*, and stayed *down*, and stayed...oh, you can have your 4% back now that the state is in "top fiscal order".

Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for the 4%.

Re: Question of the day

observer — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 00:04:56 -0000

IDOTs TM or MS or someone had to sign on that powerwash contract whats up with that in addition the MS family is now making over $170,000 after the current raises and he worked for RM when the contract was signed someone had to see something nobody is that stupid oh well tell on the teamsters why not tell on fellow employees????

Re: Question of the day

Jeff Gerth — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:54:04 -0000

The comments about politicizing technical jobs - doesn't anyone remember Thompson's people doing the same thing? Blagojevich has hit some home runs and struck out a time or two. But why can't the press recall the Thompson, Edgar, and Ryan strikeouts ... like the year before an election, no one got a raise - or the year everyone got a $464 lump sum?

Re: Question of the day

cynically anonymous — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:48:41 -0000

I think the most galling thing about Rod's letter to his "colleagues" (yeah, right) was the implication that there was actual choice involved in paying into our pensions, going without raises, and working harder - most of which involved things like promoting I Save Rx or numerous other "urgent" projects from his office. Whatever the motivation for this may have been, it doesn't even come close to making up for the nonsense this administration has subjected us to. I only hope that Patrick Fitzgerald has enough to indict this campaign fund, just like he did Ryan's!

Re: Question of the day

IDOT wife — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 23:02:43 -0000

I sure appreciated the figures that "looking for another job" worked out. However we seem to have forgotten that not only have there been no raises for the last 3 years, but our beloved Blago TOOK AWAY the raise that Ryan gave to us on January 1, 2003. So actually Januay 1,2006 would be our 4th COL raise bringing the total 2006 salary to $58,493. I know we sure needed the extra money. But thank goodness we have an extra 30 munutes every week saved by open tolling to get to the second job needed just to stay afloat.

Re: Question of the day

Anon — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 22:30:35 -0000

Cassandra - you think it's unfair that all merit comp employees are getting a 4% increase across the board rather than for doing a good job? H E L L O - what do you think the step increases that the AFSCME employees get? They get those raises yearly (and cost of living increases) whether they're hard workers, do a good job, etc.! So it's fair that for the last 4 yrs even if we went above & beyond we couldn't even get a cost of living increase, let alone any type of increase based on job performance!?!

Re: Question of the day

IDIOT to Stay — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 22:23:22 -0000

A 4% raise, and no idea when we will get another raise??? Mr Martin has been assuring his management employees for years that he has been working hard to get us a raise. Well, 3 years equals 4%, I can't imagine he'll do any better next time out. Unionize, it's probably the best way to go.

Many of our front line management positions are vacant, and we have no way to fill them. Anyone who isn't in need of a pysch exam, sees they are all dead ends. Gee - maybe we'll have to get a consultant in here to handle it.

When Blago's people negotiated contracts with all the Unions in 2004, the average raise for the 4 year contracts will be over 15%. (Gee, Gov - might want to get the political spinners working on how to blame that on Ryan.)

I agree the pension benefit in Illinois is worthwhile to work for, but losing out on 3 years of raises has put a real crimp in my final pay. Now that I've got my 20 years, time to go looking for a 'real' job - one that pays overtime, where I'm not held responsible for things beyond my control, where I can fire non-performing employees.

Goodbye State of Illinois, hello real life.

Re: Question of the day

Pete Rose — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:43:24 -0000

6 degrees of seperation is onto something.
Follow the $. Idot is the greatest for seeking contributions. Big budget projects let out multiple times per year. You can string people all the way through an administration. I would BET, like all politicians, the blago folks have promised more than is even possible to deliver. Watch out for Pauly fellas. HE HATE YOU

Re: Question of the day

6 Degrees of Separation — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 20:22:35 -0000

1. I am grateful for the 4% raise, because I never look a gift horse in the mouth.

2. CMS had to come out with a corrective memo after the gov's announcement. Apparently, true "MC" employees represent a small fraction of the employees covered by this raise. The true MC positions are listed in JCAR 310.410:

http://www.ilga.gov/commiss...

A more correct description of this group would be "non-bargaining unit" employees, which basically covers non-bargaining unit managerial and technical staff, of which MC is a small subset.

3. No one but a complete idiot would think the $14 million (for this 4% raise) was a major stumbling block in the state budget that had to be deferred for 3+ years, especially considering other items like the AFSCME/Teamsters/SEIU state worker union contracts ratified in 2004 gave a collective raise of somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 million for its members. In addition, many of the policies (including vacation carryover) were eliminated for managerial employees but retained by the unionized employees as a result of the contract negotiations.

4. In light of the above factors, the inattention to state managerial employees, especially in relation to the more favorably treated unionized employees, can only be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to get them to leave, or to demean them, for whatever reason. I think the proper term for this treatment is "Tusking".

5. I see most of the managerial units of the state, except high level policy making, Rutan exempt positions, being unionized by 2006. There is a strong movement afoot to do this, and many supervisory classifications at several state agencies have already reached the 51% threshhold that automatically enables the unions (whose potential members have signed authorization cards) to enter into negotiations with the state.

6. Did anyone pay any attention to what Tim Martin did at IDOT about a month ago? He froze IDOT's payment of raises to employees of consulting firms, with the rationale that IDOT employees aren't getting raises so why should they? Unlike the average IDOT worker, consulting firms make political contributions and have influence. A little "influence" may have led to the state releasing money for pay raises for its managerial staff...let's see if IDOT "unfreezes" consultant pay raises soon, and let's also see what kind of campaign contributions are made, and to whom.

Re: Question of the day

El Conquistador — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:57:05 -0000

It's important to keep in mind that during the last 3 years all other constitutional office staff (management employees too), legislators and their staff, judges and their staff, the Governor's staff and his cronies (largely through unscrupulous job shifting), as well as all AFSME employees continued to receive raises. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe any of the aforementioned groups went 3 years with nothing and a 4% reduction.

So, I guess only MC employees of agencies directly under the Gov. are supposed to bite the bullet when when the budget goes south... That seems fair.

Re: Question of the day

Looking for another job — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:49:31 -0000

Just for those who like numbers- the loss to state employees was more than 12% because each additional 4% raise would have been added to the previous (compounded), for example, had employees received raises each of the last 3 years:
Year 1 $50,000 X 1.04 = $52,000
Year 2 $52,000 X 1.04 = $54,080
Year 3 $54,080 X 1.04 = $56,243

$50,000 X 1.12 = $56,000

Plus the time value of money has meaning. Pay has effectively been as illustrated below for each of the years the retirement contribution has been in effect:

$50,000 X .96 = $48,000

Therefor, if the retirement contribution was in effect each of the 3 years, a merit comp employees net loss (assuming base pay of $50,000)is:

raise $50,000 X 1.04 = $52,000
2 yr retirement contributions $2,000 X 2 = $4,000
$52,000 X .04= $2,080
$52,000 - ($4,000 + $2,080) = $45,920

Either way, understand that your retirement contribution will adjust to reflect the raise, i.e., will take 4% of adjusted pay.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news- I do think this is just a quick fix. Hopefully state employees, like myself, won't vote him back in!

Re: Question of the day

Norseman — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:47:52 -0000

The question is not whether state employees should be happy they have a job or if the pay raise is justified or not. The question is whether this will soothe the anger of employees. It will not. Everyone will see this for what it is, a campaign ploy.

Re: Question of the day

A long time MC employee — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:39:37 -0000

Thank you No axe for clarifying my thoughts. I guess I am not myopic enough. While it is true there was only a $10 billion bond issue for the *pensions* I seem to recall some other bonds being floated to pay GO's. As a matter of fact, didn't Hynes request about $2 billion just to try to catch up on back payments to medical providers, pharmacies, etc.?

I guess when you add it all up it starts to seem like a lot of money, that will need to be paid back.

Re: Question of the day

Paul Powell — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 19:18:46 -0000

Sam Flood left a job as downstate patronage chief for the governor at $72,000 to take a job at the Sparta shooting complex at $96,000. Is that a 4% raise? So now he will draw how much pension on this gig? I'm happy that MC got some recognition and more money but this administration is always in a circuliar firing squad and think people don't see all that is going on. Time will tell whether the average Joe has had enough of this.

Re: Question of the day

Dragon — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 18:58:52 -0000

We all knew he would give up something in a raise. The fact is while Directors father-in-law are getting half million dollars to power wash buildings that do not need to be, the employees are asked to sacrifice. Time and time we see the waste of taxpayerÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s money along with the mismanagement to resources. I hope each State employee and each of their family send the Governor a strong message on election night. Yes the prior administration left a mess. This administration has done no better. The so-called reform Governor and his promises as delivered nothing. The apathy of the average voter to elected officials needs to stop. Illinois deserves better. Illinoisans need to send this Governor away. Illinoisans deserve better.