What better incentive is there than the paycheck?
Illinois House Republicans are pushing a constitutional amendment which would require a balanced budget "as decreed by the auditor general", or else lawmakers and constitutional officers would forgo their paychecks.
"What this initiative is really attempting to do," said State Rep. Dwight Kay (R-Glen Carbon), "is make us behave like the big business we are, but with more responsibility for the citizens that depend on essential core functions. We haven't been able to do it. We've cajoled. We've put measures forward in legislation, and it has not worked."
While lawmakers suggested non-essential services would shut down, they danced around questions of whether union-represented workers would also miss paydays.
A constitutional amendment would go before Illinois voters only if the General Assembly approves.
HJRCA 32
(posted 1:20 p.m. 03/22/2013 by Alex Degman/Illinois Radio Network)