The stories of pay, perks, and parachutes for Illinois’ college leaders, partcicularly at College of DuPage and the University of Illinois, are getting attention these days. It seems the only thing more lucrative than being in charge of these places is being fired from being in charge of these places.

It’s time to get it all under control, says State Sen. Bill Cunningham (D-Chicago). He has convened a subcommittee to consider legislation that would, among other things, cap severance pay for these presidents and chancellors at a year’s salary and benefits.

The “arms race,” as Cunningham calls the quest for high-priced administrative talent, is having a negative effect, he says.
As for the concern about losing the competition for the best administrators if Illinois imposes some kind of restriction, Cunningham says it’s the first argument they get from the universities, which he admits aggravates him.

In other State news, one Illinois County Clerk says don’t believe what you read when it comes to alleged analysis of the county’s voter rolls by the Public Interest Legal Foundation.

The report shows that among others in the state, the county has about one-percent more people registered to vote than there are people voting age or older. Sangamon County Clerk Don Gray says the foundation needs to fix their calculator.

Gray says he had hoped to go through the required purge by now, but had to back off due to the 18th Congressional District special election. He’ll says he’ll now purge the voter rolls in October.

But, Gray might be in a game of cat and mouse with the foundation.  Gray says he would love to talk to the Foundation about their claims.

Gray calls what led the foundation to their conclusions “fuzzy math.”