Comptroller contradicts Rauner’s claim on fair-share confiscation

Comptroller Leslie Munger’s office denies it played a role in crafting the latest scheme aimed at illegally withholding fair-share fees from AFSCME and other unions representing state employees.

On March 17, Rauner’s office released a memo aimed at implementing his Feb. 9 executive order forbidding state agencies from collecting fair-share payments from state employees. The memo tells agencies to lower Fair Share employees’ salaries when it transmits to the Comptroller the amounts they are to be paid.

The memo claims that Munger’s office “provided the method for complying with the EO.” Yet media reports indicate just the opposite. In the influential Capitol Fax newsletter, Rich Miller wrote that “Munger's staff said no such thing happened” and that her office had repeatedly “shot down” ideas from the governor’s office on how to implement the EO.

 When Rauner initially issued the Executive Order, he directed that the fees be placed in an escrow account. But only the Comptroller can establish such an account and she refused to do so, citing an opinion from Attorney General Lisa Madigan that the Rauner scheme is “illegal.”

“We are glad to see that the Comptroller remains committed to upholding the law,” Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said.