Sunday, January 04, 2009

Three Wisconsin Legislators Refuse Pay Raise

Good for them.

Ziegelbauer, Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Waunakee) and Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) have said they won’t take the pay raise because the state faces a two-year deficit of $5.4 billion. Others could join them in coming weeks.

 

(3) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1258 hrs
Politics + Politics - Wisconsin

  1. Big deal -

    When was the last time that they proposed real spending cuts in the budget?

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 04, 2009 at 1851 hrs


  2. In the real world people lose their jobs when they perform badly.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 05, 2009 at 1206 hrs


  3. Until someone gets interested in real reform, this kind of gesture is just that - a gesture.  Fine, but so nominal as to be almoist meaningless.

    One of two things should happen to legislative pay.

    One would be to raise it by 50% or even 100% so that we stop attracting mostly hacks who are happy living on $45K, people with successful spouses, retirees and legislative aides. Face it - $45K is not enough to live in many of the districts these people are supposed to represent and precludes many interested and qualified individuals.  Instead, we get people like Jeff Woods.

    The other would be to cut pay by 50% and to eliminate per diiems.  That woudl force legislators to be citizen-legislators with real jobs.  In the past, legislators were farmers, lawyers, doctors and businesspeople.  They were people willing to sacrifice a part of their income for public service.  Because they did not rely on their legislative pay, they also were not as beholden to special interest PACs.  After all, if they lost their legislative races, they could go back to real life and make more money rather than being out of work.  They went to Madison on occasion to do the public’s business,and then went home and worked their real jobs.  They did not use their legislative income to run around the state making political appearances for their cronies.

    I prefer the latter.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on January 07, 2009 at 0312 hrs


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