Leadership titles
Today's Courant had a good editorial on legislative compensation. Their truth-telling is what I found most refreshing. When discussing the possibility of legislators being given payraises, they wrote:
members of the General Assembly shouldn't get another raise until they retire the phony leadership titles - such as "assistant deputy minority leader" or some such - that qualify a member for a hidden bonus of no less than $4,241 even if no duties come with the title (emphasis mine).I couldn't agree more.
In a related topic, I still haven't heard any calls for stripping Reps. Clemons (witnessed a shakedown and remained silent) or Dillon (admitted to DWI) of their titles (and related perks) for their actions as legislators.
Tim White
5 comments:
Nice job of cherry picking the story Tim but you really missed the point the editorial was really about a uni leg. Mr. O'Neill suggested that Connecticut eliminate its state Senate (nobody would miss it, he said), reduce the size of the House from 151 to 125 seats, stretch the legislative calendar over most of the year and raise lawmakers' pay to $150,000 across the board. No bonuses, expenses or "other hidden payouts" would be allowed.
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS !!! $150,000. for state legislators?! Some Governors don't even get that much, and I doubt any of the other 49 states give state legislators that much base-pay. The voters would never stand for it!
Tim chose to address one aspect of the editorial: the current system of legislators padding their pay.
I agree that the present base-pay ($30,000 range) is fair enough for a half-year session. We shouldn't have to go to a uni-legislature, a year 'round session, and $150,000 pay just to get them to stop padding their pay by artificial titles!
Here's a link to what state legislators make around the country:
http://www.empirecenter.org/html/legislative_salaries.cfm
Michigan and New York are the highest at $79K (for all year sessions), but they are real exceptions. Most make $12-30K per year.
Mr.O'Neill is surely a career political hack to think that Conn. legislators deserve $150K a year!
The average state legislator couldn;t make $150K in the private sector in five years
8:03... I assure you, I had no intention of misleading you. That's the reason I added the link. It makes it that much easier to factcheck me.
As for the rest of the article, I chose to ignore it. I don't have a real strong opinion on the merits of moving to a Nebraska-style unicameral legislature. And I can't imagine anyone would think that I'd support legislators getting paid $150k/yr.
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