Shot in the Dark

Living Wage

A bill in the Senate would pay your Senators more for the privilege of jacking up your taxes and grabbing your guns – but at least relieve them of the burden of having to tell you about it.

SF 1534, by Senator Sandy Pappas (what else, DFL – St. Paul) would make Legislative pay equal to a third of the governor’s salary…:

The Minnesota Senate on Tuesday is set to approve salary increases for legislators and the governor, who have had their pay frozen since 1999.

…and peg pay increases to the Governor’s salary, which…well, I’ll add emphasis below to explain that bit:

Under the plan crafted and approved by the nonpartisan Minnesota Compensation Council, the governor would get a 3 percent pay increase in 2015 and another in 2016. The governor’s salary would be reviewed yearly after that, with increases tied to the Consumer Price Index. Gubernatorial pay has not risen in Minnesota since 1998 and ranks 32nd among the 50 states.

…meaning that the Legislature would no longer have to go through the politically-fraught process of having to vote themselves pay raises; it’s simply rise along with the CPI.  No questions asked.  No debate needed.  No friction from the fractious peasants, whose own wages, let us remember, aren’t necessarily pegged to the CPI.

TANGENT:  I’d almost place a bet that some Minneapolis DFLer will now say “if we can afford to raise legislative pay, we can certainly afford to raise the minimum wage 33%!”


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4 responses to “Living Wage”

  1. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    The Governor’s job is a full-time job. The Senator’s job is a part-time job. But they think they should make a third as much as he? They should talk to some public school union teachers . . . up it to one-and-a-third as much.

  2. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    Amend the law so that any legislator pay increases come from the education budget.

  3. Loren Avatar
    Loren

    They knew what the job paid when they ran for it. If they don’t like the pay, they should not run for re-election.

  4. Bill C Avatar
    Bill C

    Loren, you’re clearly not thinking like a legislator 😉

    This is the difference between public and private sector. The public sector has the power of the gun behind it to set wages and compensation. The private sector only has your own salesmanship behind it. When you elect people with zero fiduciary experience and zero fiduciary responsibility, you get reamed and then you get jacked.

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