It was a bad sign when Quinn’s team leaked the budget to the Trib first, but Progress Illinois collects the reaction of public employee unions and just how bad it is. This budget was never going to be good news, and certainly state workers will have to face some burden, but the impact on their compensation is rather drastic:
A typical state employee making $35,000 a year would lose more than $2,500 under these plans—a 7 percent pay cut—on top of any new income tax payment. This is deeply unfair. All Illinois residents depend on the essential services that state employees provide—and all Illinois residents should share the cost of paying for them. In other words, to help the state close its deficit, the average taxpayer making $35,000 would pay no more than an added $525 a year (or less depending on family size). But a state employee making that same amount would be saddled with an additional $2,500 in pay cuts from his or her pocket!