You don’t get enough stories like this from the Utah Legislature and I admit that while I agree with Rep. Hansen, I also admire the hell out of him for being honest.
Agree? Well, yeah, I do, at least on this topic. Setting aside the GOP leadership and the dubious behavior of certain GOP members of the Utah Legislature, the majority of lawmakers up on Utah’s Capitol Hill are just trying to do their jobs. Where they’re coming from and what their policy positions are are beside the point (however insane they seem) and, in my opinion, these citizen lawmakers, for the most part, don’t abuse their authority, don’t go on witch hunts and do their best to serve the communities that put them there.
Most of them – well, a good many at any rate.
They don’t get paid enough. Over the course of a year, these folks take around 2.5 months off their lives, jobs and families to travel to the State Capitol and, with all the earnestness and good intentions they can muster, screw things up and make the rest of us look like a bunch of weirdos. Hey, at least they’re trying.
In addition, Rep. Hansen’s odd man out vote made me read a Lee Benson article without wondering why Benson isn’t a sports reporter.
I don’t know Neil Hansen, but I’ve got a feeling we’d get along.
Hansen is a legislator from Ogden, and yesterday when members of the Utah House of Representatives voted 72-1 in favor of giving themselves a 10 percent pay cut, he was the 1.
At last, an honest politician.
Of 73 people voting, Hansen is the only one who, when asked, “Are you in favor of reducing your salary?” answered, “No.” […]
We’re already among the biggest cheapskates in the country when it comes to legislative pay. As I wrote in a column a month ago, the basic Utah legislator’s average annual salary of $14,750 ranks among the five lowest in America — less than half the national average of $35,404.
And at that, the pay decrease is largely symbolic, not to mention misleading. The headlines say the legislators are taking a 10 percent pay cut, but the 10 percent only applies to their daily pay rate of $130 during the official 45-day session. All other compensation, including lodging and mileage, will stay the same.
A reduction from $130 a day to $116 a day over 45 days equals $585 less per legislator. Multiply that amount by 104 legislators and the grand total saved is $60,840.
In California, where the average lawmaker makes $116,098 a year, they call that ashtray change.
Benson nails it with one of his closing paragraphs –
But here in Utah, where lawmakers could make more working at Taco Bell, it adds up to just one more reason why politicians are vulnerable to lobbyists with lures of free dinners and courtside Jazz tickets.
Read the rest HERE
