Lawmakers passed a bill that would mandate local public schools set minimum pay for teachers at $40,000 annually by the 2022-2023 school year.

The union-crafted legislation would set the minimum teacher pay at $32,076 for the 2019-2020 school year and scale up to $40,000 by the 2022-2023 school year. The minimum would then be raised commensurately with inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index. Lawmakers would have the ability to vote against the CPI-based raise.

The House of Representatives passed the the bill by a 65-47 vote Wednesday.

“We were short more than 2,000 teachers last year,” he said. “This is a reasonable bill.”

While schools in more urban areas often pay above the proposed minimum, schools in central and southern Illinois would have to come up with more money for teachers to meet the mandate. The bill doesn’t provide additional funding for school districts, which are controlled by locally elected boards.

Teachers in more than 500 schools would be awarded automatic raises, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education. Some teachers would see raises of more than $10,000 by the 2022-2023 school year.

The average pay of an elementary teacher in Illinois is more than $62,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“There’s no good reason to do this at a state level,” said GOP floor leader Peter Breen, R-Lombard. “This would decimate certain downstate districts.”

The bill had not been sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner for signature as of Wednesday afternoon.