Is the Compensation Review Act Unconstitutional ?

In Quinn v. Donnewald, 107 Ill. 2d 179, 483 N.E.2d 216, 90 Ill. Dec. 898 (1985), the plaintiffs contended that the Compensation Review Act (Ill. Rev. Stat., 1984 Supp., ch. 63, pars 901 through 906) was unconstitutional because it impermissibly delegated to a board the power to determine the salaries of the state officials affected. Plaintiffs argued that the Illinois Constitution required the salaries of legislators, judges, and executive officers to be provided or established "bylaw." Donnewald, 107 Ill. 2d at 186. Plaintiffs contended that the Illinois Constitution therefore required the legislature itself to set the salaries of such persons and prohibited the delegation of such responsibility to the board. The Donnewald court, however, found that the Act establishing the procedure for providing salaries was enacted through the law-making process, by the vote of a majority of both houses of the General Assembly and following presentment to the Governor for his action, and therefore satisfied the constitution directive that salaries be provided or established by law. Donnewald, 107 Ill. 2d at 187.