Rauner, AG lawyers trade jabs of hypocrisy, snark over worker pay

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration on Friday filed a brief in its state worker pay appeal case — painting Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan as a hypocrite for trying to halt pay while still paying her own employee salaries.

The attorney general’s office fired back that the filing is full of “snark” with no “law” on the administration’s side.

State workers have been paid even without a budget because of a preliminary injunction dating back to 2015. But the Illinois Supreme Court last year overturned a ruling in a separate case that said state workers were entitled to raises even without appropriations in place.

Madigan — the daughter of Rauner’s chief nemesis House Speaker Michael Madigan — in January filed a motion to dissolve the 2015 court order, but a judge said no. She said she did so to try to put pressure on lawmakers to end the historic budget impasse. But Rauner has accused Madigan, her father and Comptroller Susana Mendoza of colluding to “force a government shutdown.”

Read more: http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/rauner-lawyer-lisa-madigan-a-hypocrite-in-state-worker-pay-case/