For Immediate Release
Contacts: Stephen Rossi – 312.493.8603
July 22, 2010
State Rep Candidates Call for 10% Cut in State Officials' Salaries
Arlington Heights – David Harris, Billie Roth and Ryan Higgins, all Republican candidates for State Representative, today announced their intentions to, if elected, introduce legislation calling for a 10 percent salary cut for all elected and appointed state officials, including all legislators and statewide constitutional officers.
If enacted, the state would see more than $1.3 million in savings from cutting legislators’ base pay by 10 percent alone. The cuts would be permanent, as opposed to Gov. Quinn’s action last week to call for temporary cuts in the form of furlough days.
“Since last March, I have called for all elected and appointed state officials to reduce their salary by 10 percent, and I repeat that call today,” said David Harris, a resident of Arlington Heights and candidate in the 66th District. “Frugality begins at home and there is no better place to start saving taxpayers’ dollars than with elected and appointed officials, the folks who got us into this horrendous deficit mess to begin with.”
“Responsible leadership requires setting a positive example,” said Billie Roth, Mayor of Streamwood and candidate in the 44th State Representative District. “If small businesses are having to downsize to make ends meet, then so should lawmakers who make a pretty healthy salary off the tax-payer’s dime.”
“Hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans are without work, and even more families are struggling to make ends meet,” added Ryan Higgins, a resident of Schaumburg and candidate in the 56th District. "We need to be leading by example with respect to lawmakers salaries, and I urge any like-minded candidate or incumbent, from either political party, to join our call for this good government measure.”
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Paid for by Citizens for
Ryan Higgins.