Posted on 12/03/2005 8:12:08 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO – Most California lawmakers Monday will get a 12 percent pay raise that will bump their annual salaries to $110,880 and assure their place as the best paid state legislators in the country.
Of the Legislature's 120 members, 14 have turned down the raise, citing the state's lingering budget problems.
"I didn't feel right accepting the raise at a time when there was a state budget deficit," Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park said yesterday. "I felt I needed to set an example for fiscal prudence."
Assembly members Shirley Horton, R-Bonita, George Plescia, R-La Jolla, and Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, also rejected the pay raise.
The raise was approved in May by the California Citizens Compensation Commission. The seven-member panel was created by voters in 1990 to set pay levels for the Legislature, governor and other state elected officials.
It's the first pay increase for rank-and-file lawmakers since 1998, although the Legislature's top leaders have received more recent raises. Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, will make $127,512 a year with the latest pay hike.
Lawmakers also receive $153 a day in expense money when they're in session.
Compensation Commissioner Thomas Dominguez, an Orange County sheriff's investigator, said the raise was needed to keep legislative salaries attractive enough so "good-quality citizens" will run for office.
Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, who plans to take the pay raise, said she is in the bottom 10 percent of income among members of her Harvard Law School class.
"I also work nights and weekends," she said. "When you compare the skills required and the time required I think that the pay is about right."
Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Fullerton, who also accepted the raise, said judges and some local government officials make more than legislators.
"I didn't go into it for the money," he said. "I took a pay decrease when I came here, which my wife reminds me of daily."
California lawmakers make significantly more than their counterparts in other states. New York legislators are the second highest paid, at $79,500 a year, according to Nicole Moore, a spokeswoman for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
She asked for the job. No one forced it on her. She knew the pay when she ran for election.
I know of no other job where the employees get to vote themselves a raise, and then take it from other people at the point of a gun (well, the governing board of the Gambino family, I suppose, but we're talking about law abiding society here, allegedly).
We all know Kuehl is twisted freak socially, but I thought you at least had to have a bit of logic to get into Hahvahd.
Guess not.
I wanna' vote myself a 12% raise.
We have the highest paid and worst performing legislature in the country.
We have the most expensive public school system and the worst performing.
We have the most powerful unions who have both the legislature and the school boards in their pockets.
Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Fullerton, who also accepted the raise, said judges and some local government officials make more than legislators.
"I didn't go into it for the money," he said. "I took a pay decrease when I came here, which my wife reminds me of daily."
---
It's a pay equity thing, per Dick.
I think he ran for State Treasurer in 2002 with Bill Simon.
Ewwwww....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.