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So what do you think about this 300% pay raise the legislature is close to giving themselves? It has passed the State Senate with NO opposition, and passed the House committee this week with only minor protests. Is it a fait accompli? In my day as a Senator, I would have been recalled and run out of Ferriday on a rail if I had voted for such a large increase.
Is this a new day? Take the new poll up on the left to express your opinion. And below is the latest summary of the major opposition growing over the proposed legislative pay raise push . There was not one speaker in either the House or the Senate who spoke up on his controversial legislation. No debate. Amazing!
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 And take a look at what happened in Pennsylvinia when a similiar payraise bill was passed last year. Loisiana legislators might want to think this through a little more.
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The latest news about our Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal, aside from being on the short list of possible VP’s on the Republican ticket, has to do with Louisiana legislators debating today on increasing their pay three fold. Supposed to be near $70,000. It’s said they are doing it as a “Mafia” form of tribute, like, “Jindal, if you want all your fancy bills to reorganize our Louisiana government, it’s going to cost you.”
I cannot express well enough the present public outrage about the “raise.” The outrage is everywhere; TV, radio, and the press, as well as where two or more citizens meet. I have had a thought on the “raise” and added it for platform discussion for our state. Today, I called into our local talk show to try my idea out. Seems like it engaged the host well and was totally a new thought to him.
I would like to state it here. See what you think! My proposed solution is based on the problem-solving process of spending a great deal of time thinking through the problem before addressing any possible solution. And here I will limit my thoughts to a fictitious Mary Smith, State Legislator. Place aside Mary’s arguments about the amount of time legislating takes, how it keeps her from producing income elsewhere, etc. The central question is, “Who hired Mary?” That becomes the problem to be solved. You see, whomever it was that hired Mary is responsible for paying her.
I submit that the State of Louisiana did not hire Mary. Her district voters hired her and should pay her. Mary’s candidacy, and that of every candidate, should be in two parts. The first part is, “I want your vote,” and the second part is, “This is what I need to run my office should I be elected.” That is the amount the district is taxed when a winner is selected.
The difficult part is to sell voters to accept that a “District Legislative Office” tax, similar to a fire district tax, is in their best interest. Still, our voters routinely accept district discussions of taxes about library districts, garbage districts, fire districts, drainage districts, etc. Can you imagine a scenario where state government paid “zero” for elected legislators?
Could this work in our Federal government?