Jul 02 2008
A Defense of the Pay Raise II
I was amused to notice two comments from the same IP address, submitted within 5 minutes of one another, with different names; both very sarcastic, vitriolic defenses of the pay raise. I’m not going to allow those comments to be posted where they were submitted because that sort of thing is often enough disingenuously referenced to “prove” that they are representative of us all. Since one includes a call to violence - sarcastic or not - they can’t go unremarked.
The first, allegedly from one Sandy Martin:
Hooray! We won! I can’t believe those idiots thought they could stand up to the people. They won’t ask for a raise now for another 28 years. I think they should work for free or even pay us for the privilege of serving us. I see my legislator in the grocery store and I always go up and give him an earful of what’s on my mind. I don’t care what he’s in the middle of. One time I saw him at my neighbor’s funeral and I bent his ear plenty. I wanted to get my son a job with the state. I think these legislators are stupid because they didn’t know that they aren’t supposed to get paid for their time. They’re supposed to steal enough to make it worth their while. I say we hang them all. I hate all public officials. They are a worthless bunch of ungrateful scumbags who don’t do anything for us. I get little teeny raises and they try to get huge raises that would make them rich. Rich people make money like $60,000 a year. Like that Stephen Moret guy. That’s rich.
Let the fisking begin:
They won’t ask for a raise now for another 28 years. I think they should work for free or even pay us for the privilege of serving us.
In the last 28 years, the mileage and per diem has been raised repeatedly, and overall compensation is considerably higher than the base pay would seem to indicate. It’s comparable with what other hybrid legislatures in the south make right now, and leges also enjoy numerous benefits and perqs. Additionally, no one in the lege now has been stuck at this pay rate for 28 years because they have not been in office that long. The terms under which they work now are the exact same terms they spent tens of thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours to work under - often enough engaging, like my Representative, in some very dishonest and dirty campaigning. To complain now that they were tricked into taking them is specious.
I see my legislator in the grocery store and I always go up and give him an earful of what’s on my mind. I don’t care what he’s in the middle of. One time I saw him at my neighbor’s funeral and I bent his ear plenty. I wanted to get my son a job with the state.
It’s a pity that some people have no sense of what’s appropriate. But we all have to deal with those people. I have clients call me at home and on my cell phone on a regular basis. I have learned techniques to deal with them. I would suggest that the lege smile politely, explain that they’d be very much interested in hearing (whatever) and would you please call my office about it so I can give it my full attention, as it deserves?
I think these legislators are stupid because they didn’t know that they aren’t supposed to get paid for their time. They’re supposed to steal enough to make it worth their while. I say we hang them all. I hate all public officials. They are a worthless bunch of ungrateful scumbags who don’t do anything for us.
Given how difficult it is to get elected - it’s not like you just email a resume and wait for the response, you have to fight for these jobs - then the evident lack of due diligence is simply astounding. It indicates absolutely terrible judgment on the part of leges who feel unfairly burdened now. As for suggesting that any reasonable person thinks theft is a viable option is ridiculous. The “hang them all” crack is exactly the reason why I won’t publish the comment as-is. Yes, many of us are frustrated and angry. But those comments are over the top even as sarcasm.
I get little teeny raises and they try to get huge raises that would make them rich. Rich people make money like $60,000 a year. Like that Stephen Moret guy.
The average full time wage in Louisiana is right in line with what leges are getting for part time - NOT counting up to $740 per month in health insurance payments and a multitude of other perqs and benefits:
The average weekly wage for Louisiana in 3rd Quarter 2007 was $716. This would be equivalent to $17.90 per hour or $37,232 per year, assuming a 40-hour week worked the year around.
The point isn’t that “the lege is getting rich” or that an arbitrary figure like $60,000 is how we’re going to define rich. The point is what is a fair compensation for a part time job? As for Stephen Moret - I wasn’t paying attention to state politics in March when he received a ridiculously high pay raise. I had to Google to learn who he was and why he’s controversial. I’d have called and emailed if I’d known about it. But two wrongs don’t make a right. Rather than grant that raise, the lege should have insisted on a more reasonable one, IF one was justified at all.
The second comment is allegedly from one Andrew Stevens:
Your comments are right on! Congratulations to you and everyone involved!
If we can just get the Legislature to stop introducing so many bills they won’t have any cover for pretending that they work hard. They are always making stupid excuses like “a constituent asked for the bill” or “a group in my district wants this.” What kind of government is it where people can call up and ask their legislator to try to pass a law? That’s ridiculous.
Maybe we need to rip out their telephones and stop their email so they can’t hear from people who are always wanting things. District office phones and home phones too. Our legislators are too spineless to say no and so they end up doing what voters are asking them for and it’s wasting too much of their time. That’s just bad government.
Let’s break that down:
If we can just get the Legislature to stop introducing so many bills they won’t have any cover for pretending that they work hard. They are always making stupid excuses like “a constituent asked for the bill” or “a group in my district wants this.” What kind of government is it where people can call up and ask their legislator to try to pass a law? That’s ridiculous.
That’s a logical fallacy called a false dilemma. The legislature is not a drive-through, where constituents can order what we please and have it our way. Part of the job is to exercise a certain amount of judgment, and on occasion, to say no. For example, a good response to the constituent who wanted to see a Sazerac bill might have been to explain that such a bill wouldn’t provide a significant enhancement to the lives of most Louisianians, and therefore it would not be a good use of taxpayer money to advance the idea; and with the limited time available, wouldn’t that constituent prefer their lege work on improving the schools, roads, and hospitals instead? Most people are reasonable, and that argument is effective. For those to whom it is not, you’re wasting your time arguing in any event.
Maybe we need to rip out their telephones and stop their email so they can’t hear from people who are always wanting things.
This is why leges have a full time assistant.
District office phones and home phones too.
That is the purpose of a taxpayer-funded district office phone and the assistant who answers it - and for the home phone, a polite request to “call me at the office when I can give you my full attention,” is adequate for most people.
Our legislators are too spineless to say no and so they end up doing what voters are asking them for and it’s wasting too much of their time. That’s just bad government.
Sarcasm aside, there’s something to that argument - leges don’t want to say “No,” to a voter when their primary interest is sucking up in order to get re-elected, rather than doing what’s best for the state and letting your record speak for you at election time. And that is, in fact, bad government.
Most Louisianians are tired of being at the bottom of every “good” list and the top of all the “bad” ones. It’s time to put an end to business as usual, and for our legislature to stop wasting time on foolishness and to earn the pay raise they’re demanding. The Governor can help by laying off the special sessions and working with them in the regular session - and by accomplishing via executive order, as Jim Brown suggested, many of the things that the lege is passing laws to accomplish.
We do not want or need a full time legislature. We need one which will exercise some judgment, keep the big picture in mind, put the state’s welfare over their desire to be re-elected. Other states have hybrid legislatures which make comparable amounts of money to what our lege is currently making, and enjoy a much better quality of life. There’s no reason why we should not have the same.
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Let’s not forget that the lobbyists feed them every day - pretty good perk in itself.
I know the amount was cut to $50 per event, but as someone blogged during the ethics session, that could mean $50 for drinks before dinner, then to the restaurant for a $50 meal, then to another place for $50 more in drinks. No, it’s not Taco Bell.
A lot of people avoid legislators, rather than approaching them to bend their ear. God knows I run when I see Robert Adley enter a room.
Good job answering someone who probably did not deserve it.
“Sandy Martin” and “Andrew Stevens” seem to think that legislators are elected to keep the seat warm, wear a paper bag over their head, not have a phone, and not try to meet their constituent’s wishes. Before we “hang them all”, lets be sure to elect “Sandy Martin”.
I don’t have a problem with the number of bills introduced, including the Sazerac bill. These bills are important to some constituent somewhere for some good reason. Just because the Monroe area doesn’t care about the Sazerac, doesn’t mean that New Orleans doesn’t.
Let’s get back to what started this whole populist movement, the total disrespect the legislators have demonstrated for the voters. Ramming through a bill to reward themselves, with total disregard for the voter. No debate, riding on greased skids, and even threatening the Governor’s future legislation if he didn’t go along.
It is curious that the Senate voted to affirm the payraise by one vote. Just one vote. There is a tradition of safe-seats and vote trading. The not-so-safe seats and the politically ambitious vote against the payraise, knowing that the vote will pass because they already have a headcount. They could have stood up and debated the payraise, damned it with fiery rhetoric, but they didn’t.
It should be the mission of lege-watch to recall every politician who voted in favor of the payraise, and especially the committees and committee chairmen who passed it out to the floor. The politicians are secure in knowing that the public has the attention span of an ADD three year old, and are sure they are safe in outwaiting the public outcry.
Post a list of every politician voting for the payraise, and the status of their recall. If they stay busy fighting a recall, they can’t be up to no good.
Even if they contritely say they were wrong, recall them, let the voter decide whether someone else is better capable of representing the voter at the pay rate specified.
Actually “Sandy” and “Andrew” were defending the leges, albeit sarcastically; the inference was that the leges are working *too* hard serving the people and are entitled to become a full time political class; that those of us who disagree are hateful, willfully blind morons.
I have a major problem with the number of bills introduced, including - maybe especially - the Sazerac bill. The main beneficiary of the Sazerac bill, so far as I can tell, is the Sazerac company. Hundreds of man hours were put into passing a bill that would have caused little or no improvement in the lives of Louisianians; even New Orleanians. A handful of tourist bars might have sold a bit more of Sazerac’s booze, but if they weren’t selling tourists a Sazerac beverage they’d be selling them something else so the point is moot. It’s not like tourists would otherwise fail to drink while on vacation here.
It was just another useless bill used to buttress the argument of how busy our leges are - and I think perhaps the best argument of why they need to be restricted to the Constitutionally mandated part-time work; so they don’t have time for more nonsense.
We have serious problems in this state, and it would be nice if the lege turned more, if not all, of their attention to those problems.
As to the rest of your comment - agreed. We’ll help recall those we can; prevent the re-election of those we can; keep up public outrage as much as we can. We’re working on quite a few things that will be published soon to help with that last goal.
With all the bills, I haven’t had chance to review the “Sazerac” bill. I thought it declared the Sazerac the State drink, like the state bird and the state tree. I’ve been in the Sazerac bottling facility, located on the curve of Claiborne entering into Metairie. Alcoholic 12 steppers wandering around the alcohol glissando of a bottle filling enterprise.
keep up the focus, recall the safe seaters. I’m going to work on Eric Lefleur of Ville Platte, owner of nursing homes, hey’ his wife is having a baby, did you know? Should we give him a pass?