The Illinois House rejected a measure on Friday that would have allowed voters to remove the salaries of members of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District board, the Daily Herald reports.
The measure had been proposed by Elmhurst Democrat Rep. Deborah Conroy, and would have given voters the option to eliminate the salaries and benefits given to the Forest Preserve’s chairman and six commissioners. Commissioners receive salaries of $53,500, and the chairman $112,258, plus benefits, the Chicago Tribune reports, much more than in nearby districts.
According to the Tribune, Conroy claimed that DuPage taxpayers are "paying two people at two full-time salaries to do the same job that other counties are doing with one person on one salary."
"This is money that can be saved for the taxpayers of DuPage County," the Herald quoted her saying.
But House Republicans opposed the measure and helped to defeat it, 48-60, many saying it should be a local issue, not a state one.
"How about doing something with substance instead of pandering?" the Herald quoted, Rep. Jim Durkin, a Western Springs Republican, saying.
According to the paper, Rep. Dennis Reboletti, an Elmhurst Republican who has introduced a separate bill that would eliminate the board entirely, said it was “the wrong way to go about dealing with salaries for an elected body."
Read more at the Daily Herald and Chicago Tribune websites.