Legislative Action By NORA NEWMAN JURGENS

RTA chairman's salary: $97,500 is too much

THE Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) managed to invoke the wrath of the General Assembly March 3 when its board gave its chairman what amounted to a $25,000 pay raise. Lewis Hill's salary went to $97,500 a year. His salary as RTA chairman remained the same, $72,500; the $25,000 represented a new salary as chairman of the Northeastern Illinois Regional Commuter Railroad Corporation (NIRCRC), a subsidiary of the RTA, which shares the same board members.

On March 9 Hill declined the pay raise after downstate Democrats and Republicans in the legislature joined forces to pass a resolution calling for his resignation if he did not. Hill said he wouldn't take the money because he didn't want to jeopardize the RTA's chances to wrest a state operating subsidy from the General Assembly.

The resolution, H.R. 88, passed 76-16 March 9. Of the 33 Chicago Democrats, 4 voted yes, 13 voted no — including House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, 11 voted present and 5 were apparently absent. The resolution also asks Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil F. Hartigan and Cook County State's Atty. Richard M. Daley, both Democrats, to investigate the legality of the salary action.

Prior to the vote on the resolution, Assistant Democratic Majority Leader Alan Greiman mounted a campaign to defeat or at least dilute the resolution. Greiman and other Chicago and suburban Democrats said they deplored the pay action since it came amid state budget cuts, but they argued that downstate Democrats and Republicans were trying to "condemn a local government body without a hearing." A series of amendments failed to remove the resolution's references to illegality and conflict of interest, as well as its call for Hill's resignation.

The resolution stemmed from an investigation Republican House Minority Leader Lee Daniels launched March 3 immediately after the RTA vote on Hill's pay. As of this writing (March 15), Daniels said he would push for an investigation until the RTA rescinded the $25,000 salary.□

May 1983 | Illinois Issues | 28