During a recent floor debate of HB5760, a measure aimed at setting the mileage reimbursement rate and certain per diem expenses paid to lawmakers in 2019, Rep. Monica Bristow (D-Godfrey) admitted that she hopes Illinois lawmakers get a pay raise next year.
"Hopefully if this body (the Illinois House) and the Senate gets its act together, we will be able to have our revenue exceeding expenditures and we'll all get raises," Bristow said, according to an Illinois Republican Party release.
Bristow's proposal was met with swift condemnation in the House by Republican representatives on the floor at the time.
Rep. Monica Bristow
"Does Monica Bristow honestly believe that she, (House Speaker Mike) Madigan, and her fellow Democrat colleagues deserve a pay raise? If anything, they deserve a pay cut after all the damage they've done to Illinois. Monica Bristow is the worst kind of politician – one who is in it for the money, not the middle class," Illinois Republican Party Spokesman Aaron DeGroot said in the release.
Republicans added that Bristow's admission exemplifies that she is concerned more about her money earned from politics than helping the middle class.
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