Jun 10 2009
Taking full pay while requiring others to cut back
This is a “Do as I say not as I do” situation.
The legislature has no problem cutting the pay of state workers, and neither does the Governor. However, both legislators, legislative staff, and the Governor’s staff don’t have to take pay cuts. In a time where every dollar saved is a dollar that doesn’t have to be cut, the legislators and legislative staff don’t seem to care. They are taking full pay.
I don’t mean to hurt the Republican adminstrative assistant who is making $30k a year because the Democrats don’t give everyone equal money for staff. But it is a symbol of a larger problem - the Legislature is out of touch.
To them, a 10-15% pay cut for state workers is no problem. Somehow the people who are state workers are just going to do without, or make up the difference. But the legislators cannot do the same thing. They won’t even consider it. Legislators are taking their full pay, while making others suffer. Legislative staff is no different. There are many Democratic staffers making 6 figures, or high 5 figures. There are few Republican staffers in that situation. But regardless, those people don’t have to take any cuts.
If the reason they don’t have to take cuts is because they have to work hard at solving the problem, then the Legislature is really out of touch. During this session they had bills that would’ve required money to be spent - and spent staff time developing those bills. This is in a Legislature that knew there was no money to spend, and knew there was a deficit to solve. How is that a responsible use of staff time? How is that a responsible use of tax payer money? How is that solving the problem?
Instead of being in a “Do as I say” mode, the Legislature should be leading by examples. As they so aptly said when they eliminated some of the executive agencies, “every dollar counts.”
The same year the proposal was on the table to up minimum wage to $5, the senate said “no” to the working class, and gave themselves a $20,000 pay raise. Today, the minimum wage is $6.15 an hour, and congress has still not cut back on their spending, they have not taken a cut in pay, and almost everything they need or want, they find a way to pay for out of the taxpayer’s dollar. Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, Libertarians, and Independents, are all taking a screwing through congress, but oh, don’t they serve it up as a pretty platter of bull chips?