SPRINGFIELD -- On its own, a plan to grant Gov. Blagojevich, his Cabinet, statewide officeholders and rank-and-file lawmakers nearly 10 percent pay raises might as well have had an anvil tied to it.

But tie the politically unpalatable plan to a funding bill that also provided money to the families of deceased soldiers, police officers or firefighters, and the $1.4 million in pay raises are on a fast track to the governor to approve.

That's what happened late Thursday night as the Illinois Senate raced to beat a midnight adjournment deadline.

By 11:23 p.m. -- the time the Senate voted 37-21 along party lines for pay raises the House had previously approved -- newspaper deadlines had passed, the 10 p.m. newscasts were over, and many Illinoisans were in bed.

"It's just outrageously ludicrous. To hang their pay increase, and it is theirs, on to a bill that has line-of-duty pay for the loss of our sons and daughters in Illinois is just outrageous," said Jim Frazier, a St. Charles resident whose son Jacob, a member of the Illinois Air National Guard, died while on duty in Afghanistan in 2003.

The program Frazier cited provides survivors of Illinois military members who died while serving in Afghanistan or Iraq payments of $283,130. The funding bill contains $7.7 million for that program.

The $1.3 billion bill also provides millions for school construction, victims of violent crime, hospitals, a program to educate teachers about the impact of slavery, and medals for National Guard members who served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The part that dealt with pay raises was designed to make up for three years of cost-of-living adjustments state officials did not receive between 2003 and 2006.

Sen. James Clayborne (D-Belleville), who voted for the funding bill, said officials deserve a pay increase because salaries have not been hiked since 2001, and the rigors of the job merit more pay.

"I don't know many people who work ... as hard as we do. We didn't leave here until after 1 o'clock last night," Clayborne said Friday. "I mean, we work hard. People may not agree with everything we do, but we're sincere in what we do."

Sen. Chris Lauzen (R-Aurora) said Democrats are "manipulating the process" to muscle through a pay-raise bill on the shoulders of grieving families, hospitals and other worthwhile causes -- at the same time they can't end the budget gridlock.

"They use our hospitals. They use our veterans. They use families who have lost more than anyone could contemplate. That's what they use as a shield for their pay raise," Lauzen said.

"If my constituents back home could see this, they'd come to the conclusion this was really ugly."

And that's the way Frazier said he sees it. "When you hit me with stuff like this," he said, "you can't help but sit back, laugh, pull your hair out and punch somebody."